ISLAMABAD, Dec 31: The Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) and the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) are at loggerheads over the legality of the recently concluded 28th National Rowing Championship.

The two-day event was organised by the Pakistan Rowing Federation (PRF) at the Rawal Lake on Dec 27 and 28.

The Karachi Boat Club emerged as the winners while defending champions Navy, an important affiliated unit of the Pakistan Rowing Federation (PRF), stayed away from the competition.

While the POA declared the championship as a perfectly legal event — as per the constitution of PRF, the PSB is of the view that the event was illegal since the PRF officials were declared defunct due to their failure to conduct elections within the stipulated time of four years.

Commenting on the row over the event, the POA Secretary-general Abdul Khaliq Khan told Dawn on Wednesday: “The officials of the PRF were declared defunct by the PSB and not the federation.

“The general body of the PRF is still intact and can hold any event.

“We have no problems with any championship as long as it is organised by the federation [PRF],” he added.

Rizwan-ul-Haq, a member of the PRF general council and president of the Islamabad Rowing Association (IRA), added: “It is amazing that on one hand the PSB allowed us to hold and use its premises for international coaching course a month ago and, on the other, they term our championship illegal.”

Rizwan clarified that he was not given anything in writing by the PSB about the status of the championship. He maintained there was simply no violation of the law as the federation held the championship within the defined framework of the constitution.

Regarding Navy’s failure to turn up for the event, the IRA president pointed out: “We have invited all the affiliated units of the PRF including Navy but they never turned up despite sending entries of 16 athletes for the championship.

“I am simply unaware about the reasons behind Navy’s pull-out at the eleventh hour as they are an important affiliated unit of the federation.”

When Dawn approached Navy’s Director Sports, Captain Mehtab for his comments on their sudden U-turn from the championship, he said: “It is illegal to participate in a championship which is not recognised by the PSB and that’s why we did not participate.”

When reminded that they had sent entries of 16 athletes for the same championship, Mehtab remarked that the Navy was not aware of the PSB and POA developments regarding the PRF.

To a question that the Karachi Boat Club had used Navy’s boats for training, he said: “Navy always extends its support to any organisation to promote water-sports in the country. The Karachi Boat Club used our boats only for training and not for the championship.”