LAHORE: The government has agreed not to force the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) and its affiliated national sports federations to follow clauses of the National Sports Policy 2005 regarding restriction of tenure of president, secretary and treasurer to two terms only.

Dawn has learnt that a decision in this regard would be conveyed to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) by Friday, the last working day in Europe.

The IOC has to announce its final decision to ban Pakistan in its next meeting starting in Lausanne from Monday. However, the ban could be avoided if aforementioned response of the government is conveyed to the IOC before the start of Monday meeting.

It is learnt that a consensus that the POA would put the matter before its general council meeting developed between the government of Pakistan, POA and the IOC during a meeting held on June 19 in Lausanne.

In case any specific federation refuses to accept clauses of the National Sports Policy 2005, the government can only stop its grant and will not force the federation to follow the policy.

Only those national sports federations which are recognised by their international bodies will be recognised as true affiliated units of the POA and will be entitled to attend the general council meeting.

It is instructive to note that the IOC is to ban Pakistan in its next executive board meeting scheduled to be held on July 7 and 8.

The international body has already approved ban on Pakistan in its last meeting held in Turkey in April but deferred implementation till its upcoming meeting in July.

However, the government of Pakistan made a request to the IOC to allow it to continue dialogue as a result of which a meeting between the government, POA and IOC was held in Lausanne on June 19 in which the international body advised the government to take a final decision about the two terms restriction by July 4, otherwise, Pakistan will face ban.

Furthermore, the government has also abolished some controversial clauses of the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) rules on instructions of the IOC.

It is also learnt that the government has also agreed to issue a letter to POA president Arif Hasan to get back the Olympic House in Lahore from Akram Sahi-led POA. Akram’s body had taken control of the Olympic House with consent of the PSB.

Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2014