KARACHI, Nov 9: After his recent failure at the AIBA elections the former chief of boxing’s international ruling body, Anwar Chowdhry is likely to be ousted from Federation of Asian Amateur Boxing (FAAB) next month.
Sources said after his recent dismissal from the highest echelon of AIBA, the Pakistani official may not be able to hold his position as president of the FAAB at the elections which are to be held during Dec 1 to 15 Asian Games in Doha.
Gafur Rakhimov of Uzbekistan, who had withdrawn his candidature for AIBA president but was elected as executive vice-president, is believed to be the third most influential official in the association and is being tipped to replace Chowdhry as the FAAB president. Manuel Lopes, an AIBA executive committee member from Philippines, is likely to be re-elected the FAAB secretary.
Meanwhile, another Pakistani, Shakeel Durrani, has also been ousted from AIBA when he failed to get re-elected as executive committee member of the world body.
Shakeel, who was elected executive committee member in 2002, got only 30 votes, while Kamel Shabib from Syria (74), Manuel Lopez from Philippines (65), Taweep Jantararoj from Thailand (59) and Hamid Al Hamid from United Arab Emirates (52) were elected from Asia.
Shakeel, the son-in-law of former AIBA chief Chowdhry, was elected as AIBA executive committee member and secretary of AIBA’s Referee/Judge Commission in 2002. Chowdhry had been criticized at home and abroad for he was believed to be behind Shakeel’s success.
Sources said Shakeel, who was appointed technical delegate for Dec 1 to 15 Asian Games in Doha by Chowdhry some four months ago, is likely to be replaced by another official after failure at the AIBA elections.
Chowdhry and Shakeel were asked to disclose details of personal Swiss bank accounts and relations with sports manufacturing goods company -- Green Hill at AIBA Congress in Santa Domingo on Nov 3 and 4. However, the pair opted to refrain from commenting on the issues, the sources added.
Chowdhry has been accused of violating AIBA’s financial regulations by refusing to submit the original invoices of his expenses during four years. He was also questioned by AIBA executive committee member Rudel Obreja for accumulating huge amount of wealth and transferring $350,000 from his and daughter Sonia Shakeel’s joint Swiss bank account to a bank in Karachi.
Obreja had also challenged that Chowdhry and Shakeel were involved in receiving kickbacks from Green Hill.
Sources say that Matin Syed, the official auditor of AIBA became a laughing stock at the Congress meeting when he disclosed that he had lost his baggage and would not be able to present AIBA audit report.
Sources, however, say the AIBA accounts will now be audited by an independent auditing company. It is believed that this might create more problems for Chowdhry who has recently made headlines for all the wrong reasons.
After the downfall of the two officials, there is no representation from Pakistan in AIBA. Chowdhry is also chairman of Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF) while Shakeel is the secretary.
Newly-elected AIBA office-bearers with number of votes fetched are as follows.
President: Ching-Kuo Wu (Taiwan) 83.
Secretary-general: Caner Doganeli (Turkey) 86.
Vice-presidents:
Africa: Abdellah Bessalem (Algeria) 69; Joseph Oladunmoya Ayeni (Nigeria) 60,
Americas:.Guzman Socarras (Cuba) 81; Domingo Solano (Dominic Republic) 76.
Asia: Chang Jianping(China):84; Gafur Rakhimov (Uzbekistan) 72.
Europe: Eduard Khusainov (Russia) 70; Humbert Furgoni (France) 68.
Ocenia:.Lohial Nuau (Papua New Guinea) 78.
Executive Committee Members:
Africa: Wahbi Tayeb (Morocco) 66; Ismail Osman (Egypt) 59; Mohamed Bennour (Tunisia) 58; Azaad Bayor Kelani (Togo) 45.
Americas: Osvaldo Bisbal (Argentina) 99; Ken Butler (USA) 80; Luis Boselli (Brazil) 56; Jose Vellon Laureano (Puerto Rico) 41.
Asia: Kamel Shabib (Syria) 74; Manuel Lopez (Philippines) 65; Taweep Jantararoj (Thailand) 59; Hamid Al Hamid (United Arab Emirates) 52.
Europe: Rudel Obreja (Romania) 54; Paul King (England) 54; Igor Gaidamak (Ukraine) 43; Terry Smith (Wales) 42.
Oceania: James Little (Cook Islands) 66.
Additional Executive Committee Members: Nieva Embuldenia (Sri Lanka) 35, Bettan Andersson (Sweden) 23, Ornulf Hansen (Norway):21; Kishen Narsi (India) 21.
