LAHORE, June 27: The elections of the Punjab Judo Association (PJA) which were scheduled to be held on Thursday have been postponed by election commissioner Painda A. Malik, saying the other two members of the election commission are not ready to assist him.

“Khalid Hasan and Nazir Bajwa are not ready to assist me in supervising the elections and I have no option left but to postpone the elections for an indefinite period,” Painda told Dawn on Thursday.

The Punjab Olympic Association (POA) had disaffiliated the PJA on June 5 for unconstitutionally replacing president Farhat Siddiqui with Samina Malik.

To hold fresh elections, the POA had appointed a three-member committee headed by Painda. The committee had decided to hold the election on June 28.

“I held a meeting with the two members on June 21, informing them the date of the elections (June 28) on which they agreed but now I am surprised to note they are not ready to supervise the elections,” he said.

Painda strongly insisted that the membership of the PJA had not been cancelled by the POA and only the certificate issued to Samina as the president was cancelled.

When contacted, POA secretary Khawaja Idrees alleged that the elections were postponed because Painda could not decide which district association bodies were genuine.

“Khalid Hasan and Nazir Bajwa received some objections from Sargodha and Faisalabad district associations over the list of office-bearers but Painda was not ready to listen to them and insisting on the elections,” he said.

Idrees stressed that the affiliation of the PJA had been suspended by the POA.

He rejected the allegations that he was trying to oust Mahmood Naveed, who is contesting for PJA presidency, as he considered him as his possible rival in next year’s elections of the Punjab Olympic Association.