June 21, 2007	Thursday	Jamadi-us-Sani 05, 1428

KARACHI, June 20: A former Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF) official on Wednesday urged the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) and Federal Ministry of Sports to remove federation’s chairman Anwar Chowdhry who has been debarred by AIBA for his alleged involvement in embezzlement of funds.

Former PBF joint secretary Ali Akbar Shah, in a statement, said that since International Boxing Association (AIBA) had debarred its former president (Anwar Chowdhry), it was imperative that he be removed from the PBF post and the federation be put under ad hoc till 2008 Bejing Olympics.

“I strongly appeal to Federal Ministry of Sports and POA to take action and impose ad hoc on PBF till Beijing Olympics in the wake of corruption scandals involving Chowdhry following which he has been debarred for life by AIBA,” Akbar said.

“Chowdhry has been running the PBF single-handedly though he has no constitutional powers while federation’s president (Zafar Zuberi) is nothing but a rubber-stamp.”

Akbar, who is the president of Karachi West Boxing Association (KWBA), added that sincere people having technical knowledge of the sport and a clean record should be appointed to run the PBF till Olympics.

Interestingly, while AIBA has slapped a life ban on Chowdhry, he has been made honorary life president by Wapda’s executive committee although the PBF auditors have already pulled up the federation for its financial irregularities.

Akbar, meanwhile, also lashed out at the POA president, Lt-Gen Arif Hassan (retd) and member of International Olympic Committee (IOC) Syed Shahid Ali for their weak stance following the Chowdhry scandal.

“They (Gen Arif and Shahid) are aware of what has been happening since November 2006 but they have been mere spectators to the second biggest scandal in the sporting world after the scam involving former IOC official Kim Un-yong,” he lamented.