KARACHI, March 12: Zafar Iqbal and Gulfaraz Ahmad were elected “unopposed” president and secretary of Karachi Hockey Association (KHA) on Sunday, while Aijazud-Din-led group opted to stay away from the polls held for the third time.

Although the whole body has been elected unopposed and announced, chaos and confusion prevails because of tug of war between two groups led by Gulfaraz and Aijaz.

The reason being the announcement by Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) through its director administration, Iftikhar Syed, that elections of district hockey associations in Sindh and scrutiny of clubs have been put on hold because of complaints about the process from various quarters.

The elections were first postponed on Jan 6 after Gulfaraz levelled attempted rigging allegations against secretary of scrutiny committee Iftikhar and director domestic hockey, Muhammad Shafique.

Brushing aside all rules and regulations, elections coordinator in Sindh, Sindh Sports Minister Qamar Mansoor, on Jan 24 proposed to Gulfaraz and Aijaz a novel idea of sharing power by holding the KHA secretary office for two years each.

Both parties initially agreed, but later things went out of control because of disputes between the two parties. To resolve the issue, Qamar announced that elections would be held for the third time following which PHF stated elections and scrutiny in Sindh had been stopped forthwith.

Qamar, also PHF advisory board member and appointed coordinator by federation, opted to go for the elections for the third time which resulted in victory for Gulfaraz without any resistance.

Altogether 42 voters from 26 clubs used their right of franchise in the elections held under the supervision of Sindh Sports Board (SSB) director Ghulam Akbar Shah Bokhari.

“If Aijaz and his associates think they have a better vote bank than us, then why they did not appear for the elections this time. We lost the elections on Jan 24 because our voters were intercepted and forcibly made to sit in police vans when they were on way to election venue. Now they have disappeared and did not file nomination papers,” Gulfaraz alleged.

Gulfaraz said Karachi team for inter-region tournament starting from Match 18 in Hyderabad would be selected soon.

However, the present situation indicates that it will be a daunting task to bring hockey affairs in the city on track and there will be two parallel associations as Aijaz-led group has already selected few players for Karachi team.

Akbar said absence of the rival group did not mean it was a boycott for neither Aijaz nor any other candidate filed nomination papers. The official said now election process had been completed and he had provided the list of office-bearers to sports minister.

“The elections in Karachi have now been completed and the list of office-bearers will be submitted to PHF by the sports minister soon,” he said.

Asked how the elections could be held since PHF had already announced that polls and scrutiny of clubs in Sindh had been stopped immediately, Akbar said Iftikhar and even PHF had no authority to issue such directives.

“Iftikhar Syed is a PHF director administration and was secretary of scrutiny committee. He has no authority to issue such statements. He has become a party in this whole process and wants to favour the group led by Aijaz.

“Even PHF has no authority to interfere in the affairs of districts. PHF can hold the elections of Sindh Hockey Association (SHA) and not district associations. PHF has always tried to meddle into affairs of districts but that cannot be allowed. Only coordinator and SSB can hold the elections,” the SSB official said.

Aijaz was not available for comments, but on Saturday he had stated he was the genuine KHA secretary as he won on Jan 24.

Asked why elections were held for third time, although the matter was “settled” by Qamar on Jan 24, Akbar said “things were getting out of hands and it was necessary to hold fresh elections. Jan 24 proceedings are now null and void.”

SHA polls would be held on March 19 under PHF, Akbar said and added venue would be decided later.

Office-bearers:

Zafar Iqbal (president), Masroor A. Khan, Raees Ahmad Khan (vice-presidents), Gulfaraz Ahmad (secretary), Azeem Khan, Jawaid Iqbal (joint secretaries), Talat Mahmood (treasurer), Arif Ashraf, Riazuddin, Rahman Khan, Muzaffar Khan Rana, Moeed Khan, K.M. Asif, Syed Naseem Hussain, Aneequr Rahman, Azmat Pasha, Anwar Alam Khan (executive committee members), Arif Ashraf, Jawaid Iqbal (representatives for SHA).