LAHORE: Participation of the Pakistan contingent in the upcoming 17th Asian Games is in the doldrums since the country has missed deadline of Aug 31 for depositing the accommodation fee to the organisers, Dawn learnt on authority.

According to the information available to Dawn, 80 per cent of the participation fee with the rate of 10 US dollars for each player for each day was to be deposited by the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) until Aug 31 but the summary for the said amount could not be approved by the department concerned at the PSB.

The Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) which has completed accreditation work for the contingent has also refused to deposit the fee due to its limited financial resources. In this situation it is more likely that only financially strong federations would participate after depositing their fee on their own.

The Games for which the POA led by retired Lt Gen Arif Hasan has finalised a 236-member contingent to represent the country in 25 different disciplines are slated to be held in Incheon, South Korea from Sept 19 to Oct 4 having in its fold 439 events in 36 different sports.

However, preparations for the Games has hit snags since besides PSB failure to submit the required accommodation fee within stipulated time, training camps to be set up by the PSB to train players for the Games are yet to get full momentum despite the fact the Games are round the corner.

Also, dispute between two factions of the POA is still putting players participation at risk particularly players associated with judo, cycling and athletics, since a case is still pending in this regard in the Lahore High Court (LHC).

All the three federations have moved the LHC to get stay order against government decision under which Arif-led POA was recognised by the government after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was about to suspend Pakistan membership this year.

Though the court gave stay order against the government decision, later on judo and cycling federations officials claimed they would not be parties in the said case with the athletics federation led by Akram Sahi still adhering to its stance.

As per sources, though the judo federation has filed an application in the LHC to renege on its previous stance in the said case, it has not been accepted as yet. Cycling federation secretary Azhar Ali Shah also intends to move an application for withdrawing the case.

However, the chances are that the POA would send judokas and cyclists to the Asiad from those federations which are affiliated with the POA but not with their international chapters.

But the POA may face a difficult situation since all the three bodies of athletics, cycling and judo are affiliated with their respective international bodies but not with the IOC-recognised POA. On the contrary, these three federations are affiliated with POA’s parallel body led by Akram Sahi.

It is also instructive to note that since all the three federations — cycling, judo and athletics — are affiliated with rival POA body, the Arif-led POA has given affiliations to other groups in these three disciplines.

On the other hand, since the IOC has decided that only those federations could participate in the international events which are affiliated with their international chapters, the POA may write a letter to the Asian Games organisers, seeking their advice on what to do when the internationally-recognised bodies of Pakistan are not affiliated with the IOC- recognised POA of Arif Hasan.

The prime example in this regard is judoka Shah Hussain who was sent to Commonwealth Games held in Glasgow by Arif-led POA, not the Pakistan Judo Federation, despite the fact that the latter is recognized by its international body. And the POA led by Arif is again likely to bear expenditure of Shah Hussain in the upcoming Asiad.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2014