“We will fulfil our international commitments and continue to pursue our diplomatic efforts to lure foreign players to feature on tennis courts across Pakistan.” -File

Jilani has been appointed as the ad hoc president of the tennis federation by the director general of the Pakistan Sports Board, Amir Hamza Gilani, replacing Dilawar Abbas in a late night initiative to arrest decline of the sport.

“I was never aware about the government's move. All I can say is that we will complete the task assigned by the government within a span of 90 days as written in the constitution of the PTF,” said federal culture minister Jilani.

Dilawar Abbas completed two terms with the federation and sports analysts believe he could not adopt creative approach to uplift the game.

According to Azam Dar, a senior official of the Pakistan Sports Board, they were left with no other option but to remove the current management which had violated the constitution of the federation.

“The ad hoc was very much needed because the outgoing management was not willing to hold elections as per the requirement of the PTF constitution,” he said, without naming any official of the PTF.

The minister assured “We will continue with all the programmes of the federation as per the plan and hopefully handover the management to the next elected representatives without extending our stay in the federation.”

He said that communication with the International Tennis Federation and Asian Tennis Federation would go on.

“We will fulfil our international commitments and continue to pursue our diplomatic efforts to lure foreign players to feature on tennis courts across Pakistan,” said Jilani.

Asked about the previous management, Jilani claimed that former PTF president Dilawar Abbas had done a better job during his stay at the national federation.