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LAHORE The three-member appellate tribunal retained the two-year ban on the two female athletes Sadaf Siddiqui and Javeria Hasan after discarding their appeals against the ban imposed on them here on Thursday.
The tribunal headed by Director General Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) Ameer Hamza Gillani, with two members from Secretary Athletics Federation of Pakistan (ATP) Khalid Mahmood and Dr Lubna Sibtain heard both the athletes, before announcing the verdict.
Both were penalised by a two-member commission of Major (retd) Mohammad Afzal and Dr Meesaq Rizvi, after their dope test report was received as positive.
The tests were conducted during the training camp set up at Islamabad for the Commonwealth Games, to be held in India from Oct 3 to 14.
However, both Sadaf and Javeria, while speaking to reporters after appearing before the tribunal said that they were innocent.
“I used all medicines on the advice of my family doctor and the tribunal should ask my doctor what kind of medicines he recommended for me,” she said.
“In the past I have been clearing the tests when the samples were sent to Malaysia, but this time the sample was sent to India and I came to know that one of the doctors on the panel was absent when the test was conducted,” she pointed out.
Sadaf said she would file a case in the court of law while also defending her position before WADA. Similarly, Javeria also said that she only took multivitamins, which every athlete uses.
Ironically, the athletes did not ask the tribunal to test their 'B' sample in order to confirm the laboratory report.
It is interesting to note that the dope test for the athletes was conducted on the order of the PSB Director General Ameer Hamza, who is also appointed as head of the appellate tribunal. Furthermore, the induction of ATP Secretary Khalid Mahmood in the matter is a conflict of interest for the athletes.
