KARACHI/ISLAMABAD: In the end, nothing happened on a day which began with a lot of promise that the pathway will finally be laid for the long-awaited elections of the Pakistan Football Federation.

Instead, the PFF Extraordinary Congress was postponed with some issues still to be resolved and the amendments to the constitution of the country’s football governing body — which are paramount to holding the elections — deferred to a later date.

However, the amendments to the constitution and the elections of the PFF have to be conducted by Dec 15 — the date that marks the end of the mandate of the PFF Normalisation Committee, which was first appointed by FIFA in September 2019.

Before that, the NC would also hope to have resolved its issues with the government after a parliamentary panel slammed the Haroon Malik-led committee during its meeting in Islamabad on Tuesday.

Officials of the PFF NC have been asked to attend a meeting next week with the Pakistan Sports Board, the country’s sports regulatory body, having asked NC chairman Haroon to provide an update on the elections and the amendments to the constitution. It also asked the NC to halt all election-related activities until the meeting on Nov 26.

Dawn reported on Tuesday that Monday’s Constitution Review Workshop held by the PFF NC, where officials from FIFA and the Asian Football Federation, had seen recently-elected Congress members raise objections to some of the proposed amendments regarding the candidacy of the PFF president.

The proposal to have an open election, with any football official or ex-player nominated by a Congress member eligible to run, was shot down. Congress members had also raised concerns over three female members being nominated to the forum by Haroon.

However, the Extraordinary Congress was postponed after three departments — Pakistan Navy, Pakistan Air Force and Pakistan Police — protested their exclusion over a clause of the constitution that states that “any member that fails to participate in three consecutive championships/premier leagues/major sporting activities shall be suspended from voting at the Congress”.

With the NC having failed to organise a single event — men’s or women’s — three times during its tenure, officials from those three departments contested the decision to bar them from attending the Congress.

“A meeting between PFF NC officials and delegates from FIFA and AFC resulted in the postponement of the meeting, with FIFA’s Head of Member Associations Governance Rolf Tanner stating that once the issue was resolved, the Extraordinary Congress should be reconvened, and that the elections should be held by Dec 15,” well-placed sources told Dawn.

The PFF NC said in a news release that Tanner “reiterated that as per Article 8 of FIFA Statutes, the NC is an Executive Committee of the PFF with Haroon Malik as its President”. “The details of the rescheduling of the meeting shall be shared in due course,” it added.

Over in Islamabad, Mohammad Sanaullah Khan Mastikhel, the chairman of

National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Inter-Provincial Coordination, said it will ensure transparent elections of the PFF.

PSB director general Yasir Pirzada informed that the PSB had received several complaints from the stakeholders against the election process and that it had written letters to the NC to clarify its position.

“If the standing committee’s directions are not implemented and manipulated elections are held then we would get an FIR registered against those responsible under section 420 of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), which deals cheating and dishonesty,” Sanaullah stated.

“The PFF belongs to Pakistan and in case of any wrongdoing, then people of Pakistan under his leadership will take up the control of the football house.”

Haroon had been asked to attend the meeting but with the Extraordinary Congress coinciding with the event, the NC sent its Human Resource Director Aziz Malik, who was asked to ensure “the presence of the NC chairman in the next meeting”.

Published in Dawn, November 20th, 2024