December 27, 2007	Thursday	Zilhaj 16, 1428

KARACHI, Dec 26: The caretaker Prime Minister Mohammadmian Soomro and Khalid Rehmani are set to get a second four-year term in office as president and secretary of the Sindh Tennis Association (STA) when the quadrennial elections take place at the Karachi Gymkhana on Thursday.

The polls are part of a four-item agenda that will come up for discussion at the general body meeting of the provincial body.

Soomro, who accepted to head the STA sometime in the middle of 2003, has given his consent in a letter which has been received by the association.

Apart from re-electing the two officials, the meeting will elect a senior vice-president (SVP), vice-president (VP), treasurer, joint secretary (JS) and an executive committee comprising six-members. The number of representatives for SVP, VP and JS may exceed more than one.

Other items on the agenda include secretary’s report, future activities and any other item with the permission of the chair.

Saeed Hai, a former Davis Cupper and senior vice-president STA, will preside the meeting.

When asked about the reason of some delay in conducting the elections, Rehmani said: “firstly we were supposed to complete districts elections and secondly the STA constitution allows holding the polls during the calendar year when they are due.”

The STA has already held the elections in Mirpurkhas, Larkana, Hyderabad and Karachi in the recent past while the elections in Nawabshah, Dadu and Jamshoro were held earlier.

Waseem Ahmed became the new head of the Karachi Tennis Association (KTA) with former Davis Cupper Altaf Hussain as secretary. The latter has been re-elected for second term.

The period has witnessed rapid growth as far as activities are concerned. For this year alone two ITF world ranking junior boys and girls’ tournaments, a Seniors’ event and five ranking tournaments including one in Mirpurkhas were organised.

Sindh also grabbed three gold medals in women’s singles, doubles and team event.

“The Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) on our request has given us a world ranking junior tournament for next year after getting an approval from the world body,” the STA secretary said.