ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Bodybuilding Federation (PBF) has made it mandatory for all the clubs to submit an affidavit to the federation mentioning that they won’t be using any illegal substance for rapid muscle-building of the athletes.

“We have cancelled the registration of all bodybuilding clubs after the death of four national bodybuilders,” Sheikh Farooq Iqbal, president of the PBF, told APP on Thursday. “Now our only condition on renewing the registration of clubs will be an affidavit from them.

“After the clubs submit affidavits to us we will send a list of those clubs to the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB). The clubs not submitting the affidavits will be closed or banned.”

Last month, four Pakistani bodybuilders — Matloob Haider, Mohammad Rizwan, Humayun Khurram (Mr Lahore, Mr Punjab, Mr Pakistan and South Asian Bodybuilding Championship 2016 gold medallist) and Hamid Ali (ex-Mr Punjab) — passed away in mysterious circumstances. It is suspected that the deaths were caused due to doping issues.

Sheikh said to make it foolproof to prevent bodybuilders from using steroids or any illegal substance for growing their muscles, “we will be ensuring that dope tests are conducted at all levels of every bodybuilder to stop this menace”.

“Dope tests will be conducted of each and every bodybuilder before any district, regional or national level championship,” the official added.

It may be mentioned that use of steroids by bodybuilders causes heart enlargement and high blood pressure which can lead to sudden cardiac arrest.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2016