ISLAMABAD, July 8: A key official of the Pakistan Weightlifting Federation (PWF) on Tuesday expressed delight over the return from England of weightlifter Muhammad Irfan.

“We are very happy that he has finally decided to come back which is going to benefit us all,” Muzaffar A. Qureshi secretary of the PWF told Dawn.

Irfan, an employee of Wapda, won three silver medals for Pakistan at last year’s Commonwealth Games in Manchester. On his return home, he was rewarded by his employers who not only promoted him to Grade 17 but also gave him a cash award of Rs 150,000.

However, he left for England again soon afterwards making use of the multiple visa he had to “earn money” and has now come back only recently after overstaying there for some months.

“He has already started training and I am sure that he will perform well both at the national and the international levels,” Muzaffar said.

On his return, Irfan was also awarded Rs 600,000 announced by the government earlier for his fine performance at the Manchester Games.

Muzaffar said that Sheikh Riaz, the president of PWF and Irfan’s mentor was upset over the weightlifter choosing to go to England and then staying there illegally. “But now that Irfan is back, he is quite happy.”

Irfan had earlier been bestowed with the prestigious President’s award for Pride of Performance.

Meanwhile Muzaffar reiterated that while it was heartening to see the government announcing cash incentives for the players, it was time that the coaches were honoured too. “Irfan trained very hard to win his medals but it was because of his coach Khizer Hayat Raja that he was able to achieve glory.”

He said that the government should not ignore the efforts of the coaches who work equally hard with the athletes in guiding them to stardom. Muzaffar had recently written to sports minister Rais Munir Ahmed regarding this.