LAHORE, July 13: The elections of the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF), which were to be held on Saturday, have been postponed after Lahore High Court (LHC) granted a stay order on a petition challenging the federation’s polls.

Justice Tariq Shamim issued the stay order, accepting the petition of secretary of Punjab Football Association (PFA) Mahmood Khalid, who pleaded that he had no knowledge, notice or information regarding the schedule of elections of the PFF.

He further claimed that on account of non-compliance with the statutory provision of article 23 of the constitution of the PFF, his association was being deprived of participation in the elections.

“Subject to the notice for the date already fixed in the main petition, the proposed schedule of elections of PFF to be held on July 14 shall remain suspended,” the judge said in his order. The hearing of the case will be on Aug 1.

PFF which had issued a press release in the afternoon, confirming the elections would be held on schedule, later said polls had been postponed due to stay order.

“The PFF Congress will meet on Saturday at Football House, but there will be no elections during the meeting in view of stay order of the Lahore High Court. However, the house will discuss about remaining points of the agenda. All PFF Congress members will attend the meeting except three members from Punjab because of the stay order,” a PFF press release said.

Arshad Lodhi and Mahmood Khalid were elected president and secretary of the PFA in April. But the PFF did not announce the result of the elections due to a stay order sought by a rival group. The case of the PFA elections is also being heard by the same judge.

Although the case against Arshad’s re-election as chairman of PFA was in the court, the PFF had announced that federation’s elections would be held on July 14. Faisal Saleh Hayat was also declared and announced as president of the federation after being re-elected unopposed since no nomination was received against him two months before the elections.

PFA had appealed to the PFF not to hold the elections and later approached FIFA and AFC to stop the elections. In response to the appeal FIFA had asked PFA to furnish required documents. But as because of time constraint it was not possible to send the documents, Khalid moved court against PFF polls.