July 09, 2008	Wednesday	Rajab 5, 1429

LAHORE, July 8: Two of the three representatives of of the Balochistan Football Association (BFA) have been replaced due to a no-confidence motion passed in the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) Congress on Tuesday, Dawn has learnt.

A no-confidence motion had also been tabled against BFA president Mohammad Jan Mari on July 6 and according to the constitution the voting on the motion will be held after one month on Aug 6.

Former PFF secretary Syed Agha Liaqat Ali, one of the new representatives, confirmed to Dawn from Quetta about the successful motion tabled on July 6.

“First the general body with a vast majority of 19 members made the no-confidence motion against Mohammad Jan Mari, Ayaz Mehmood and Naseebullah Khan. However, later the house showed generosity to Naseeb and again elected him as representative with two new members —Sardar Mir Bajar Dhoke and I (Agha Liaqat),” he said.

Liaqat explained that the change was made due to unsatisfactory performance of the three representatives.

In an effort to avoid a no-confidence motion against him, the PFF president had recently made some amendments in the constitution.

According to one of the amendments, no new representative of any province or department in the PFF Congress could cast vote in the no-confidence motion against the PFF president, without having completed a year as representative.

According to that clause, the sacked representatives are still genuine members to cast vote against the PFF president in case of the no-confidence motion.

When asked how the new representatives would work with the PFF Congress as the sacked representatives had not completed one year tenure, Liaqat said since FIFA had not yet approved the new amendments, hopefully the new members would be allowed to work as genuine members of the province,” he said.

PFF secretary Ahmad Yar Lodhi said though he was unaware about the successful motion, the PFF would only accept any change if it was made according to the constitution.

He stressed that a month’s notice must been given before tabling a no-confidence motion, besides also tabling the name of the new candidate.

He added that new amendments had come into force soon after getting the approval of the PFF Congress last month and there was no need to get FIFA’s approval.

“We have sent the new amendments to the FIFA just for information,” he said.

Furthermore, he said the new elected members must be elected among the 19-member house of BFA as the constitution does not allow any outer member to be elected as representative of the province for the PFF Congress.