KARACHI, Jan 17: Pakistan’s top featherweight boxer Mehrullah, currently serving a life ban, said on Wednesday that he would be challenging the Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF) decision by appealing to the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) to intervene in the matter.
The star pugilist, who was banned for life by PBF along with Faisal Karim after the South Asian Games organisers found him guilty of using cannabis last August, said he would be knocking PSB’s door with an aim to return at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
However, the former Asian Games champion clarified that both he and Faisal had not been banned for life and they were, in fact, facing a two-year ban by PBF after a ruling of International Boxing Association (AIBA).
“We will be appealing to PSB to intervene into this matter. First we received a six-month ban by South Asian Games organisers and then a life ban by PBF which was later converted into a two-year suspension after AIBA ruling,” Mehrullah told Dawn.
The boxer, who won a silver at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games last March, said a two-year ban would be as damaging as a life ban for him since he would not be able to take part in the biggest sporting extravaganza in the Chinese capital.
“When we were banned for six months by the South Asian Games organisers, why is the PBF talking about a two-year ban. We tested positive for the second time and were suspended for six months and that ban would be over by the end of February this year. But the two-year ban would be extremely damaging for our careers which is the reason why we want justice to be done now.”
But things are still as intriguing as they are ambiguous in the two boxers’ case since the PBF maintains that Mehrullah and Faisal are under life ban and not a two-year suspension as Mehrullah claims.
“They (the two boxers) have been banned for life and not for two years. There is no question about it and there is no change in the life ban,” said secretary of the PBF, Shakeel Durrani.
When asked was the life ban not too harsh a penalty, Shakeel said it was the decision of PBF Executive Committee on which he could not comment.
However, the PBF official was at a loss of words when asked if the decision was endorsed by PBF chairman Anwar Chowdhry. “Why does he (Chowdhry) need to approve the decision when the executive committee has made it. It was all done by the executive committee.”
When pressed to disclose the exact date on which the life ban came into effect, a rather clueless Shakeel said, “it usually comes into effect when the offence is proved.”
Interestingly, AIBA says that it should originally have been a two-year ban and not a six-month suspension that was awarded following the offence.
“According to a protocol signed between AIBA and WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency), the boxers should have received a ban of at least two years after testing positive. Please correct this mistake and inform AIBA Lausanne office,” AIBA secretary Caner Doganeli asked Chowdhry in a Nov 27, 2006 e-mail.
The issue became more complicated when investigations revealed that WADA is in contact with the PBF while Shakeel denied the agency ever contacted the federation.
“WADA is currently in contact with the national federation on this particular matter. We cannot comment further at this point,” WADA spokesman Frederic Donze told Dawn from Montreal, Canada only to be refuted by a stunned Shakeel who stuttered before coming up with the reply, “No WADA is not in contact with us.”
To make matters worse, it was also revealed that the PBF has neither sent any official intimation about the decision to the banned boxers or their departments.
“We and our departments have not received any official letter till yet. And whenever I ask PBF to issue a letter stating I have been banned I face a barrage of expletives from the officials,” Mehrullah said.
When enquired about the situation, Shakeel did admit that the PBF had not issued any official letter to the respective departments of the banned boxers. He, however, had no logical answer as to why it has not been done despite the passage of almost six months.
“We had issued the press statements regarding the decision but I believe the federation should have sent the letters to the boxers,” said the PBF secretary.
Meanwhile, a sports medicine expert says PBF mishandled the issue and the life ban against the two boxers was too harsh a penalty.
“Six-month suspension is appropriate considering the case of the two boxers, but life ban is definitely too harsh. We have also heard that life ban would be converted into a two-year ban. The boxers might have been saved had PBF pleaded their case well.”
“Now we have an option to fight the case at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). We have offered the PBF to challenge the decision at CAS but there is no reply as yet from them,” said Sports Medicine Association of Pakistan (SMAP) secretary, Pervez Rezvey.