LAHORE, Feb 3: It is history in making as the general council of the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) will elect its office-bearers through elections for the first time here on Saturday, instead of announcing a unanimous body, as per past traditions.
A three-prong contest among the incumbent POA president Gen (retd) Arif Hasan, Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) president Qasim Zia and Athletics Federation of Pakistan president Akram Sahi is on the cards.
Though Arif Hasan has announced the name of his secretary in Khalid Mahmood and Qasim Zia has named Khawaja Farooq Saeed for the same post, Akram Sahi will announce a suitable name from six candidates before the start of the electionsmeeting.
However, it is likely that Major (retd) Afzal may be his candidate.
Around 104 voters from different affiliated units of the POA will cast their votes. Among them, 19 federations belong to Olympic sports, which have three votes each, while 12 non-Olympic sports, which have the right to cast two votes apiece.
Besides them, four provincial bodies, Wapda, Army, Police, Railways, Navy, Pakistan Air Force, HEC, Islamabad and Fata willalso use right of one vote each.
Four ladies, two voters of athletes’ commission, sitting president and secretary will also cast one vote each.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Cycling Federation has been barred from casting the votes following a court order.
However, Pakistan Basketball Federation and Pakistan Badminton Federation will cast the votes according to court orders.
Though all the three candidates are claiming victory, since it is the first competition of its kind in the POA, nobody can predict victory.
But a good sign is this that all the three candidates have agreed on all the rules of elections and at least the elections are likely to be held in smooth atmosphere.
The main strength of Arif Hasan is his eight-year-long affiliation with the POA as its president, during which he was in contact with all the affiliated units.
In contrary, Qasim Zia and Akram Sahi are new entrants in the POA family.
In a chat with Dawn, Arif Hasan claimed a convincing victory.
“I have support of majority of the voters since I have been working closely with all the affiliated units of the POA for the last eight years,” he said. “I have done all work to rest ensure the elections should be transparent,” he added.
“The IOC representative Jerome Poivey is reaching Lahore in the wee hours on Saturday and Haider Farman of the Olympic Council of Asia has already reached Lahore to monitor the entire process of the elections,” he said.
Qasim Zia said he had successfully completed his campaign and hopefully he would get maximum votes.
He assured that after the elections there would be no grouping and the entire Olympic family would work like a unit. Qasim further said he belonged to a sports family and he would do his best to serve the POA.
Akram Sahi said though he had majority of votes, he would not disclose their exact number. He said he would introduce new sports culture and better atmosphere for players after winning the elections.