LAHORE, Sept 7: In-fighting among the officials of the Pakistan Table Tennis Federation (PTTF) was the main reason behind Pakistan could not participating in SAF, Asia or other world level events this year.

This situation has resulted in the players being made to suffer for no fault of theirs. At present, the officials are divided in two groups — one headed by PTTF former president S.H Shah and the other by its ex- secretary SM Sibtain.

Pakistan was to organise the SAFF junior championship in May this year but as neither federation was functional, the event was shifted to India which organised it in June without Pakistan’s participation.

The Asian senior championship which was held in South Korea from Aug 28 and the World championship held in Shanghai, China were the other major events which Pakistan missed.

Chances are also there that the Asian Table Tennis Federation (ATTF) could suspend Pakistan’s membership for not taking part in the Asian championship.

The federation had been in doldrums since August, 2003 when the then president

S.H. Shah held the elections. But one member moved the court.

Later, the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) played an arbitrary role and reunited both the groups by forming a two-man committee of S.H. Shah and Sibtain to run the federation on ad hoc basis. But Mr Sibtain resigned in June 2004 saying he could not run the affairs under the agreed setup.

The one-man committee of S.H. Shah also became ineffective as it failed to run the federation after failing to get due support either from the POA or Pakistan Sports Board.

Later, the POA held elections on July 10 this year but again a member moved the court. The court, however, allowed to conduct elections but ordered to seal its results.

Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) is sending a team to the Islamic Women Games being held in Tehran this month, but the board is not eligible to send the teams in the tournaments being organised by the SAF, Asian or World’s game governing bodies.