ISLAMABAD, Nov 7: The Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) has barred the Pakistan Amateur Boxing Federation (PABF) from holding their general elections saying the federation is a ‘defunct body’ after its failure to hold polls last July.

An official of the PSB Azam Dar, told Dawn on Friday: “We have sent a letter to PABF asking it to submit a voters list to the board so that we can hold the elections since the Federation officials are no more authorised.”

The PBF, had earlier failed to hold elections in July this year and instead sent a letter that they will be holding the elections in November because of a delayed audited accounts report.

The official said: “We give PABF annual grants and at times special grants, so the federation is under the PSB.”

When the President PABF Zafar Zuberi was contacted to comment on the issue he said: “Our auditors were busy during the said period and we could not hold elections without getting an audited accounts report.”

Audited accounts report, he said, is the key point of our annual general meeting agenda.

Zaffar contended that the PBF is under the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) and not under the PSB.

“The PSB only provides us the funding as per the allocation of the government and it is the taxpayers’ money” added Zafar.

“The PSB cannot interfere in any of the administrative matters of PABF,” he said.

He said the constitution was not specific about the month for conducting elections, which were mandatory after every four years. “We will be holding the elections in November as the POA will send an observer for our elections,” the official concluded.