KARACHI: The Ethics and Disciplinary Committee appointed by the Pakistan Foo­tball Federation Normalisation Commi­ttee is going back in time, slapping life bans on officials who took part in elections of the country’s football governing body that were held by the Supreme Court in 2018.

Accusing them of forming a parallel body, the committee on Monday night banned for life 18 officials, several of whom were to take part in the upcoming provincial elections organised by the FIFA-appointed Norm­alisation Committee. Two of them, Zahir Ali Shah and Rana Ashraf, were among the front-runners to bag the provincial seats from Khyber Pakht­unk­hwa and Punjab having already won from their districts.

In the same ruling, another 10 officials — six of them who were part of the Congress that came into power after elections were held by the country’s apex court — were banned for their involvement in the takeover of the PFF headquarters in March 2021 from the Haroon Malik-led NC, which saw Pakistan being suspended by global football body FIFA.

In a separate announcement, Haji Khalil — a strong contender to win the provincial election in Balochistan — was handed a five-year suspension for embezzling PFF funds “through the parallel body”.

The bans came after Nasir Karim Baloch, who’d given a show of strength in Sindh, was also debarred from football activity for his involvement in forming a parallel body. The life bans that were announced on Tuesday came after the disciplinary committee had asked the PFF secretariat to provide a list of officials from 2017 who were involved in forming a parallel body.

But while the takeover of the PFF headquarters took place during the tenure of the NC, the question remains whether the ambit of its disciplinary committee extends to the period prior to its appointment.

The disciplinary committee has directed the PFF secretariat to send a copy of its decisions to FIFA and the Asian Football Confe­d­eration. The world’s football governing body and the continental federation both held talks with officials who came into power through the elections of the PFF held by the Supreme Court and took their input before appointing the Normalisation Committee.

The bans also come despite a number of officials having been allowed to contest the district elections after passing eligibility checks. The aggrieved parties have been given 15 days to file an appeal but that effectively means that they are out of the race to take part in provincial elections with the PFF NC having announced that they will be held from Sept 16 to 18.

It has also said that a final list of candidates will be announced by Sept 11.

The move to ban some of the country’s top football officials comes amid accusations that the NC led by Haroon is aiming to secure votes in order to get a preferential candidate elected as the PFF president.

There were protests by several teams during the recently-held National Women’s Championship over preferential treatment given to eventual winner Karachi City FC, the club of Pakistan national women’s team coach Adeel Rizki. The winner of the women’s championship becomes part of the PFF Congress which elects the president.

FIFA was asked about the actions being taken by the PFF NC it appointed but its spokesperson did not respond to specific questions asked by Dawn. It instead pointed to the fact that it had extended the mandate of the NC till Dec 15 back in March.

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2024