June 23, 2007	Saturday	Jamadi-us-Sani 07, 1428

KARACHI, June 22: Refusing to accept the existence of the Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF), the Sindh Boxing Association (SBA) on Friday elected its new office-bearers while urging the authorities to take note of financial irregularities involving top Pakistan boxing officials.

In the elections held in Mirpurkhas and participated by 11 districts of the province, Jameel Gul was elected president with Ali Akbar Shah the new SBA secretary which was an open challenge to the PBF hierarchy.

Interestingly, the PBF has been planning to hold its own SBA polls in Hyderabad on June 27 which are unlikely to be participated by any district as the officials have expressed confidence in the new SBA leadership.

Earlier, in a rare show of defiance, districts in Karachi and interior Sindh held their elections despite pressure from the SBA officials to refrain from such activities.

“Since the International Boxing Association (AIBA) has debarred its former president Anwar Chowdhry, who was also the PBF chairman, for life citing charges of embezzlement, there is no PBF now. We are not under PBF since we do not consider Chowdhry as the PBF chief anymore,” Ali Akbar told Dawn from Mirpurkhas.

Akbar, who is also a former PBF joint secretary, said the newly-elected SBA had appealed to the Pakistan Olympic Association and the Pakistan Sports Board to intervene and investigate into the financial irregularities in which Chowdhry and the PBF secretary, Shakeel Durrani, had been involved.

Apart from the life ban from AIBA, Chowdhry also faced tough time recently when the PBF auditors pointed out financial mismanagement and made disclosure of a bank account being operated without having any record in account books.

The general body of the SBA met for the first time in five years before the elections which approved formation of four commissions — the Sindh Boxing Referee Judge Commission, the Sindh Boxing Medical Commission, the Sindh Boxing Coaching Commission and the Sindh Boxing Legal Commission.

The house, which last met on April 22, 2002, also created a new post of an executive joint secretary.

For the first time in history of Pakistan boxing, a lady, Madiha Larak has launched a boxing club — Shafi Mohammad Larak Boxing Club — in Bhit Shah, Matiari. She represented Matiari and was also elected as one of the SBA executive committee members.

While previous secretary of SBA, Akram Khan, remained busy in convincing district office-bearers to stay away from the elections, Makhdoom Irshad Ali, who was specially sent to observe the elections process, supervised the polls as a Sindh Sports Board representative.

Executive committee members from Larkana and Ghotki will be named later, although the nominations were required to have been sent before elections.

Newly-elected SBA office-bearers:

Jameel Gul (president), Abid Hussain Brohi (senior vice-president), Ghulam Mohammad Rind (vice-president), Ali Akbar Shah (secretary), Asghar Baloch (executive joint secretary), Saleem Baloch, Yar Mohammad Qambrani (associate secretaries), Ghulam Hussain Patni (treasurer).

Executive Committee: Madiha Larak, Saleh Mohammad Hayat, Noor Mohammad Qambrani, Zaman Shah, Saleem Qambrani, Ali Dino Shar, Atiqur Rahman, Ayub Sheikh.