LAHORE: Retired Lt Gen Syed Arif Hasan and Khalid Mahmood were re-elected unopposed as president and secretary of the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) for fifth and third time, respectively for the term 2019-2023.

The elections of the POA were to be held on Nov 26 but no nomination papers against Arif’s panel were received by the Election Commission till Friday, the last date for filing the papers.

The Election Commission is likely to announce the official results on Nov 26.

Arif has been at the helm of the POA since 2004 and will enter his fifth term on the post.

It is the third time that Arif has been elected unopposed. In 2012 and in 2016, he won the elections against Akram Sahi’s panel by a good margin.

Syed Aqil Shah of the KP Olympic Association has been elected as the senior vice president. Five men and two female vice presidents were also elected.

Moreover, Mohammad Shafiq is also retained as treasurer, while one deputy secretary general is also elected. Five associate secretaries are also elected.

New POA office-bearers: Retired Lt Gen Syed Arif Hasan (president); Syed Aqil Shah (senior vice-president), Khalid Saleem, Mohammad Zaheer Akhtar, Ch. Mohammad Yaqoob, Syed Mohammad Abid Qadri, Shaukat Javed (vice-presidents); Begum Ishrat Ashraf, Fatima Lakhani (lady vice-presidents); Mohammad Khalid Mahmood (secretary general), Mohammad Shafiq (treasurer); Mohammad Jahangir (deputy secretary general); Zulfiqar Ali Butt, Hafiz Imran Butt, Rizwan-ul-Haq, Ahmed Ali, Sohail Ahmed Khan (associate secretary generals); Veena Salman Masud (lady associate secretary general); Majid Waseem, Javaid Shamshad Lodhi, Wajid Ali Chaudhry, Amna Tanwir, Col. Raja Wasim, Asif Azeem (representative of sports federations); Andleeb Sandhu, Sana Ali, Zainab Shaukat, Sumera Sattar, Shahida Khanam (lady executive members).

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2019