KARACHI, Oct 6: Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF) on Monday was bitterly criticized barely two days before hosting an international tournament when a former official slammed it for what he called selecting blue-eyed boys for the contest.
“This is not boxing, this is a joke PBF is playing with the boxers. Not only weight categories of star boxers have been changed to accommodate the favourites, the squads have not been picked by the national coach,” Ali Akbar Shah said.
PBF has announced two squads — Pakistan Greens and Whites — for the third Green Hill Cup boxing tournament which starts here from Oct 8. PBF has claimed the squads have been picked by Reinaldo Alveraz, the national coach from Cuba.
Ali, a former joint secretary of the PBF, said top boxers Meherullah and Asghar Ali Shah had been persuaded to change their weight categories to give favour to some departments which would discourage the talented boxers.
Meher was originally a featherweight, while Asghar a light- welterweight, but former had been fielded as bantamweight and later as lightweight, the official said and added it was nothing but injustice to both the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) pugilists.
“We tried our best to settle Meher in bantamweight before the Busan Asian Games last year and even reduced his diet to decrease the boxer’s weight. But we failed and finally Meher won the gold in featherweight.
“Meher has won two more featherweight golds. Now the PBF has forcibly accommodated Meher in bantamweight by asking him to shed three kilogram of his body weight which would be disastrous for him.
“Likewise, Asghar has been asked to reduce four kilograms while he is actually a light-welterweight and has won international medals in the same division,” Ali claimed.
The official termed the national ranking tournament organized from Sept 10 to 12 here a farce, saying quite a few boxers who won gold medals in the competition had been axed from the squads to include those who even did not participate in the contest.
“When the ranking tournament was held to help coach select the squads then why gold medal-winning boxers have been overlooked. The tournament was a sham. Even a super-heavyweight Saifullah Niazi of Wapda has been included, although he has never attended a national training camp for the last three years,” he said.
Ali alleged flyweight Jawwad Hussain of Pakistan Navy and KPT’s Abdullah Qambrani who clinched gold and silver in the ranking tournament had been omitted from the squads.
“Both Jawwad and Abdullah are not even in Whites, while Pakistan Army’s Akhtar Pervaiz who claimed the bronze after losing to Abdullah in quarterfinal and Wapda’s flyweight Shoaib Rasheed who also crashed out in last eight, will represent the country at the international championship.
“Similarly, KPT’s Zahid Hussain, who is a lightweight boxer has been included as featherweight. PBF rubbed salt to the wounds as Wapda’s lightweight Sajid Raja and featherweight Sohail Baloch, who did not take part in the ranking event, have been selected,” the official said.