ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: The Pakistan Sports Board says the officials of the Pakistan Olympic Association were invited but didn’t turn up to the 23rd meeting of its Board. The POA says the PSB invitation came too late.

The ongoing spat between the government’s regulatory body for sports and the country’s Olympic committee continued on Monday when the PSB once again criticised the POA for Pakistan’s poor performance at the recent Tokyo Olympics.

Earlier this month, the government demanded POA chief retired Lt Gen Arif Hasan to resign from the post he has held onto since 2004. That demand came at a news conference held by Special Assistant to Prime Minister Shahbaz Gill and Minister for Inter-provincial Coordination Fehmida Mirza.

The POA hit back, claiming it was performing the role assigned by its constitution.

In Monday’s meeting, the PSB said that instead of sending relevant coaches, officials were sent on joyrides to Tokyo.

“The relevant coaches were not sent as they were not given accreditation. Admin officials were sent to Tokyo for joyrides,” said a press release, issued by PSB after the meeting.

It added that the POA had also failed to control the athletes once they were in Tokyo and racist comments were made by one athlete.

“Behavior of all members and athletes was the responsibility of POA,” the press release said. “Untrained athletes were sent. Covid-19 SOPs were not followed which defamed Pakistan’s name. All this showed the failure of the Olympic Committee.”

It noted that all board members except the POA officials participated with business tycoon Aqeel Karim Dhedhi joining the meeting through a videolink.

“It was decided in the meeting that no one would be allowed to do anything in future that would defame the country or bring disgrace to the government,” the press release added. “All the participants agreed that a National Sports Policy should be implemented in the country which would regulates all sports institutions/entities.”

The press release stated that all board members expressed regret over the POA president not attending the meeting, to which Arif hit back, complaining that the late invitation deprived him the chance of joining them.

In a strong-worded letter to PSB director general retired Col Asif Zaman on Monday, Arif complained that while other members had been notified of the meeting beforehand, the invitation to the POA was only sent on Sunday.

“I have just received an email forwarded by my office which was dispatched by PSB at 06:04PM on Sunday 29 August 2021 with a request to attend a Board Meeting on Monday 30 August 2021,” Arif said in the letter.

“Sunday being a holiday the offices were closed and therefore the email was forwarded Monday morning. Strangely the original Notice of the Meeting of the Board was issued sometime back to the rest of the members of the Board but for some reason it was not deemed appropriate to invite/inform President POA, who is very much a member of the Board, to attend this meeting.

“That the invitation was sent just a few hours before the meeting therefore seems to be an afterthought or a late realisation that a member of the Board should be invited to attend.

“You will realise that in any eventuality it would be well-nigh impossible to attend any meeting at such a short notice. You will also realise that I am in the United States with a time difference of 12 hours. It would have been appropriate if this notice of the meeting could have been sent to me along with the rest of the Board members and to arrange my attendance virtually.

“Much that I would have liked to, but due to this very late information, it is impossible for me to attend this meeting. For the sake of propriety and fairness, it is therefore also requested that the points related to POA may be deferred till the next meeting.”

Published in Dawn, August 31st, 2021