KARACHI, Dec 27: The International Boxing Association (AIBA) on Wednesday held the top Pakistan boxing officials responsible for their team’s pathetic show in the recent Asian Games at Doha, saying it was proof enough that former AIBA president Anwar Chowdhry was involved in “corruption” and was insincere to the game’s development.

Caner Doganeli, the secretary-general of AIBA, said selfish motives and corrupt ways of the Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF) chairman Chowdhry and his son-in-law Shakeel Durrani, the secretary of the PBF, had been exposed after Pakistan returned empty-handed from the Qatari capital.

“The 15th Asian Games have exposed the real face of Pakistani boxing. In these Games, 192 boxers from 32 countries participated of which 10 were Pakistanis. As many as eight Pakistan boxers were eliminated in the first round,” Doganeli told Dawn from Turkey.

Elaborating further on the performance of Pakistani boxers in Asiad, the AIBA official said they were able to win only two fights out of 12, while they were ousted after being outscored by their opponents in 10 bouts.

While Pakistan’s medal hopes Mehrullah and Faisal Karim missed the biennial event due to the six-month ban slapped on them for failing doping test at August’s South Asian Games in Colombo, PBF was pinning hopes on lightweight Asghar Ali Shah who lost to Filipino Genebert Basadre 20-19 in the preliminary round.

Another medal hope, flyweight Nauman Karim, was defeated by India’s Jitender Kumar 14-6 in the preliminary round. Nauman reached the preliminary round after a 28-14 victory over Wai Tong Kam of Macau, while bantamweight Abid Ali beat Tajik Emomali Malaev 22-19 in the preliminary bout.

The remaining Pakistani boxers were reduced to mere punching bags for their respective rivals.

“Pakistani boxers won three gold medals and Pakistan became the champions in Asian Championships in Vietnam with the help of the then AIBA president Prof. Chowdhry and Referee/Judge Committee chairman from Asia, Mr Shakeel Durrani who is his son-in-law. But they finished at bottom in Doha Asian Games,” Doganeli said.

And it was this sudden slump in Pakistan boxing standards that has raised eyebrows at Chowdhry. “Now everybody asks with a smile how that team which was the Asian champion just a year ago, collapsed so easily. So the ‘corruption’ exposed by officials of different countries involving Prof Chowdhry and Shakeel Durrani was a fact not fiction. How could a Pakistani boxer lose to an Iraqi boxer, although he (Chowdhry) was at the helm of AIBA for the last 40 years including 20 years as its president?”

Pakistan’s featherweight Muhammad Sajid Raja crashed out of the preliminary round after Suraka Mahdi of Iraq was declared winner on final points calculations as both boxers ended the bout with a 27-27 stalemate.

Doganeli suggested that if Pakistan were serious in winning medals on merit in future, they should what he said “get rid of Chowdhry.”

“Pakistani boxers failed to win even a bronze at Asian Games. I suggest Prof Chowdhry must be ousted from Pakistani boxing,” said the AIBA official.

Chowdhry was accused in October by AIBA of financial irregularities and receiving kickbacks from boxing gear manufacturing company Green Hill. It was alleged that Chowdhry refused to submit his original invoices for four year to Swiss auditing firm Fiduciaire Tucker, while he received money from the boxing gear manufacturers as kickback.

Chowdhry was also questioned by AIBA Executive Committee member Rudel Objreja to disclose the source of money he accumulated in Zurich-based UBS Bank from where he transferred $350,000 to her daughter Sonia Shakeel’s account in Karachi.

After being ousted in November as AIBA chief for 20 years, Chowdhry, in a tit-for-tat response, accused the current president Ching-Kuo Wu and other AIBA officials of what he said “buying votes” at the polls. However, he failed to substantiate his allegations.