LAHORE, Dec 27: Differences between the president and the secretary of the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) were found out during the last general council meeting of the PFF which was held here on Saturday.
Well informed sources told Dawn that in the meeting, a representative from Punjab, Mahmood Khalid, who is a close ally of PFF secretary Arshad Khan Lodhi, raised an objection that the PFF president Faisal Saleh Hayat had illegally signed the minutes of the last general council meeting, held in August, and got it approved.
It may be mentioned here the secretary, who is a member of the ruling PML-Q, did not attend the August's meeting, due to political assignments. The secretary had requested the president to postpone the meeting but the latter refused.
Mahmood claimed that four members of the general council had to prepare the minutes as the secretary was not available and later had to get them signed by the secretary but Faisal Saleh Hayat had prepared the minutes himself and signed them, which was illegal.
“According to the FIFA and PFF's constitution, only the PFF secretary is authorised to prepare the minutes of every meeting and to sign it," Mahmood said.
The secretary also endorsed the version of Mahmood in the meeting and termed the act of the president as illegal.
Another round between Faisal and Arshad is likely to start over the suspension of PFF finance manager Khalid Hashmi.
The secretary had suspended Khalid on the charges of corruption and sent the case to Faisal for final approval.