KARACHI: Pakistan Football Federation’s Disciplinary Committee, formed by the FIFA-appointed Normalisation Committee in November last year, slapped bans on former officials of the Islamabad Football Association for misappropriating funds with the decisions taken ex-parte.

Former IFA president Chaudhry Saleem was banned for 10 years while former secretary Sharafat Bukhari was stopped from all football activity for seven years with former PFF director member associations and projects retired Col Farasat Ali Shah banned for life.

The PFF NC put up the judgement on social media with the disciplinary committee acting upon a complaint from former IFA official Shaukat Ali Khan.

Saleem was accused of taking cash amounting Rs209,000 from the PFF as an eight-month salary for IFA general secretary Ammar Sarwar in September 2019.

The disciplinary committee contended that Ammar was appointed in March 2019 instead of January that year and although Saleem showed that the cash he had collected had been deposited into Ammar’s account, it ruled that the former IFA chief was “found involved in commission of corruption and the formation of parallel association”. Saleem has also been asked to return the amount.

The disciplinary committee also found some letters from June 2019 which were signed by Sharafat as IFA general secretary and said he “was found actively involved with Saleem to gain unjust and undue advantage by causing loss to PFF exchequer”.

Farasat, meanwhile, gave the funds to Saleem and was banned for life with the disciplinary committee taking into consideration a previous suspension slapped on him by the former disciplinary committee.

The members of the disciplinary committee were given little introduction upon their appointment last year. Their independence has been questioned and the PFF’s legal department made a huge gaffe earlier this year when it termed the 2018 elections of the Punjab Football Association, held on the orders of the Supreme Court and accepted by the PFF and FIFA, illegal.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2023