January 09, 2008	Wednesday	Zilhaj 29, 1428

KARACHI, Jan 8: The quadrennial elections of the defunct Sindh Olympic Association (SOA) will be held on Jan 22 at a local hotel under the supervision of the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA).

The date and other details were announced on Tuesday by the POA secretary, Abdul Khaliq Khan, who heads a three-member committee entrusted with the task to conduct the polls. Other members are POA treasurer, Mohammad Afzal and president, PTTF, S.M. Sibtain, who is also named the local coordinator.

The POA had also released a list of 30 affiliated units of SOA who will elect a president, chairman, vice chairman, three vice-presidents, secretary, treasurer and two associate secretaries besides eight members of the governing body.

Every affiliated association of the SOA has been asked to submit the names of two representatives for the electoral meeting within 10 days of issuance of the POA circular dated Jan 4.

Surprisingly, athletics, the mother of all sports, is not among the affiliated members of the SOA so does another popular sport basketball.

This is not the first time that SOA is plagued by rift among members which compelled its parent body the POA to intervene and set the house in order.

Affiliated members of SOA: Badminton, body building, boxing, baseball, cycling, canoeing, football, golf, gymnastics, handball, hockey, judo, kabaddi, karate, netball, shooting, rowing, rugby, skiing, squash, swimming, sailing, table tennis, tennis, tae kwondo, tug-of-war, volleyball, weight lifting, wrestling, wushu.