August 06, 2008	Wednesday	Sha’aban 3, 1429

LAHORE, Aug 5: The Pakistan Olympic Association (POA), which is at loggerheads with the federal sports ministry, has summoned its general body meeting on Aug 30 to discuss the overall progress of the government in implementing the national sports policy.

The meeting is significant after the federal sports minister had issued notices to several national sports officials, the affiliated units of the POA, for retaining their posts in the federations for more than two-term, which is a clear violation of the policy.

When contacted, the POA Secretary Abdul Khaliq Khan told Dawn that the main agenda of the Aug 30 meeting was to discuss the progress of the government regarding implementation of the sports policy and to adopt further measures to improve the sports standard in the country.

Asked if the general council would also discuss the violation of two-term policy, the secretary said there were many points.

“As far as the implementation of the national sports policy is concerned there are more than 25 clauses which are to be implemented by the federal ministry,” he said.

The most controversial clause of the policy restricts the president, secretary and treasurer of every national sport federation to a maximum two terms.

It was also the bone of contention between the government and the POA in 2002 and even President Pervez Musharraf had issued a statement twice urging it to implement the policy in letter and spirit. On failure, the government supported Lt Gen (retired) Arif Hasan was brought in as president of the POA in 2004, in place of late Wajid Ali Shah, with the hope now the clause will be implemented.

But one year later, Gen Arif decided not to implement it at the pretext that some ‘good’ officials of the sports federations might also be fired. According to Gen Arif, he had also convinced the president over the new stance. That allowed the same officials to continue their tenure while the sports decline continued.

When contacted, an official of the federal sports ministry, on the condition of anonymity, said the government had chalked out a comprehensive plan to implement the policy.

“Holding the officials despite completing two terms is a clear violation of the national sports policy, which has been duly approved by the Cabinet,” he said.

Asked on the same issue whether the POA may have involved the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to help it out from the government’s pressure, the federal sports ministry official said: “We don’t believe the IOC will involve in it since the government has duly approved the policy and now it is a law of the land.

“If we are interrupting to implement any unlawful thing, the IOC has the authority, but in fact the POA is violating the law of the land.”

The national sports policy was introduced in 2002 without any notification. But on the same clause the POA confronted the federal government and filed a case in the court. The learned court ordered the government to first issue the notification about the policy.

Later, the notification was issued in 2005 but no steps were taken to implement it. Then the POA had taken the stance before the court that restricting the tenure to two terms is against the 1973 constitution of Pakistan as it does not force any clause on the elected members.