No sooner had the Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) untangled itself from an “illegal election” saga vis a vis Salman Butt that it was directed by the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) on Tuesday to conduct fresh elections on a complaint that the federation’s senior office-bearers were appointed without elections.

Tariq Sidhu, president of the National Association of Athletics Technical Officials (NAATO), alleged “constitutional violations” in AFP’s general council meeting held on December 31, 2024, according to a petition, which Dawn has seen.

According to Sidhu, the appointments of Wajahat Hussain Sahi as president, Shahida Khanum as senior vice president, and Humaira Mehmood Khan as vice president “were made without elections, in violation of the AFP Constitution.”

“He further contended that mandatory procedures, including issuance of notice and circulation of minutes, were not followed,” the petition read.

It further said: “The elections were also in violation of Rule 17 of the Constitution of Pakistan Sports Board 2022 and constitute a Code Violation under Clause 5 of the Pakistan Code of Ethics and Governance in Sports.”

The matter was referred to PSB Adjudicator Senator Pervaiz Rashid, who, after hearing the parties dircted AFP to immediately conduct “fresh, transparent, and lawful elections” of the three aforementioned positions in accordance with PSB Constitution, National Sports Policy, and Sports Election Regulations Pakistan.

“Meanwhile, the current AFP office bearers are restrained from all major administrative, financial, disciplinary, selection, or policy decisions. They may only perform routine day-to-day functions necessary to avoid administrative disruption,” the petition stated.

AFP was also directed to submit certified copies of its constitution, and electoral college within three days.

Just last month, AFP imposed a lifetime ban on Salman Butt, coach of Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem “gross violations of the AFP Constitution” due to “illegal and unconstitutional” elections held by the Punjab Athletics Association (PAA), of which Salman was president till August 6.

The matter was heard by Rashid, who stated in his final order that “AFP’s attempt to unilaterally declare PAA’s elections as ‘null and void’ is without jurisdiction, as election supervision lies with the provincial authorities and not AFP.”