Hassan gets third consecutive term at POA

Alam Zeb Safi KARACHI: Lt General (Retd) Syed Arif Hassan was re-elected as President of the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) for the third consecutive four-year term at the electoral meeting at Lahore on Saturday.
Khalid Mehmood, the secretary of the Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP), will serve as Arif’s secretary. Haji Mohammad Shafique, Pakistan Handball Federation’s (PHF) secretary, will perform duties as the treasurer.
Hassan won convincingly by getting 48 and a half votes out of 102. His rivals Major General (Retd) Mohammad Akram Sahi claimed 32 and a half votes and Olympian and Pakistan Hockey Federation’s (PHF) President Qasim Zia secured 21 votes in the process which was also monitored by observers from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA).
It was earlier decided that the wining candidate will bring his own panel and accordingly Arif presented his own panel after achieving victory. The nominations of the Pakistan Basketball Federation, which they had sent to the election commission of the POA on Friday following a court’s verdict in their favour, were accepted and they used their voting rights accordingly.
But Pakistan Badminton Federation’s nominations were not accepted as they failed to meet the deadline of 5:30pm on Friday. “We submitted our nominations a bit late and therefore we were not allowed to cast our votes,” PBF Senior Vice-President Naqi Mohsin told this correspondent.
The victorious Arif Hassan said at a short press briefing after the electoral meeting that the elections were held in cordial atmosphere and the attitude of the contesting candidates remained good throughout the process.
He said that they all belong to the same sports fraternity and would go ahead jointly for the betterment of sports. He said that efforts would be made to compensate for the mistakes he made during his previous tenures.
Sahi said he was unhappy with those who did not vote for him despite promising to do so. “I never expected that we sportsmen could be so hypocrite. I had a full assurance from 60 percent voters but the results were unexpected,” the dejected Sahi told ‘The News’. “It seems something unbelievable,” said Sahi, also a former international athlete. “We were not fighting for any position but were contesting elections for the promotion of sports and will continue to serve sports,” said Sahi, also the president of the Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP).
The newly-elected secretary Khalid Mehmood was happy over his elevation to the post of the POA secretary.
“The whole credit goes to my department WAPDA as it was through their support that I became able to get the post of POA secretary,” Khalid said. “I will attribute my victory to WAPDA and will strive my best to work for the betterment of sports in Pakistan,” Khalid said.
In the previous two tenures, seasoned campaigner Abdul Khaliq Khan was acting as secretary with Hassan but because of his old age he has been rested and his name has been put on the list of the Vice-Presidents.
Office-bearers: Lt General (Retd) Syed Arif Hassan (President), Khalid Mehmood (Secretary), Haji Mohammad Shafique (Treasurer).
Vice-Presidents: Syed Aqil Shah, Shaukat Javed, Chaudhry Mohammad Yaqoob, Doda Khan Bhutto, Fatma Lakhani, Abdul Khaliq Khan, Iftikhar Ahmad Tabassum, Kamran Lashari, Saeed Iqbal Khan, Mohammad Afzal Awan. Associate Secretaries: Mohammad Jehangir, Zulfiqar Ali Butt, Hafiz Imran Butt, Hafeezullah Khan, Haider Lehri, Major (Retd) Majid Wasim, Mrs Veena Masood.
Members Executive Committee: Khawar Pervez Shah, Mohammad Rashid Malik, Ahmad Yahya Khan, Wajid Ali Choudhry, Sumaira Sattar, Saba Shamim, Nargis Rehmatullah, Riaz Ahmad, Shahid Hussain, Shaukatullah, Syeda Ambreen Kazmi, Shagufta Malik, Habiba Fayyaz.
(source The News 5 Feb 2012)