LAHORE, Nov 5 A decade-long dispute in the Pakistan Basketball Federation (PBF) is likely to be resolved now as the fresh elections of the federation are to be held in Islamabad on Saturday.

The existing PBF body, headed by Raja Bashrat as president and Col. Nasim as secretary is most likely to lose the polls since many affiliated units have already elected a new body in Lahore with Brig (retd.) Rashid as its president and Khalid Bashir as secretary.

Almost all the affiliated departments like Wapda, Army, Railways attended that meeting to also show no-confidence on Raja Bashrat body. The representatives of four provinces, which are also duly recognized by their respective Provisional Olympic Associations, also attended that meeting.

As the matter of elections is a complicated one, the POA has sent its secretary general Abdul Khaliq Khan as observer, withdrawing the name of Khalid Mahmood.

The dispute in PBF started in 2001 when the then President, late Mohammad Afzal Khan, held the elections in Lahore. Brig. (retd.) Rashid Malik was the main rival of Afzal group. After a dispute over the electoral list erupted, the Pakistan Sports Board held the elections under its supervision.

But as the two bodies (Afzal Khan and Brig. Rashid Malik) were tied at seven votes each, then president Afzal was set to cast his vote for deciding the matter. However, then Director General PSB Saulat Abbas did not allow him to do so and imposed ad hoc.

During the ad hoc, basketball did not make progress in Pakistan as hardly any national team was sent during this period. Later, Raja Bashrat was elected as president but again the players could not get any good tournaments or exposure.

Fed-up from the entire situation, the two warring groups joined hand with each other and held their own elections in Lahore. But neither the POA nor the PSB recognised those elections, raising objections that only PBF secretary Col. Nasim could summon an election meeting. Now Col. Nasim had summoned the meeting on Nov 6 to elect new office bearers. —Sports Reporter