KARACHI: Mohammad Shafiq was on Tuesday elected the new president of the Pakistan Football Referees Association, the Pakistan Football Federation Normalisation Committee claiming that with that step the “election wheels have been set in motion”.

Shafiq will now have one vote when the PFF elections are conducted by the Haroon Malik-led NC, which has been asked by global football governing body FIFA to get the process done by the end of its mandate in March next year.

The PFRA elections, however, were termed “unconstitutional” by certain parties who are vying for power. They told Dawn on Tuesday that they had the option of going to court but they did not want to hinder the election process.

“Elections of the PFRA coincide with elections in district and provincial levels,” a member of one of the contesting parties told Dawn. “Here there are no provincial referees’ associations voting for the PFRA president.”

A member of another contesting party told Dawn that they had written to both FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation about the elections but had received no reply.

“We don’t want to go into a legal wrangle here but if same unconstitutional steps are taken during the elections of the district and provincial football associations, we will go to Court for Arbitration in Sport,” the member added.

Shafiq was elected unopposed with Waheed Murad becoming the senior vice-president. Saeed Khan was elected the PFRA general secretary.

Published in Dawn, November 14th, 2023