Arif becomes POA president for third time

  By Muhammad Ali
LAHORE: Lieutenant General (r) Syed Arif Hasan became president of the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) for a third consecutive term after an elective meeting of the General Council of the National Olympic Committee (NOC) at a local hotel here on Saturday. Syed Arif, who was first elected as POA chief in 2004 and again in 2008, bagged 48.5 votes while his rivals Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) President Major General (r) Muhammad Akram Sahi received 32.5 votes and Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) President Qasim Zia received 21 votes. Total votes of the General Council were 103. Muhammad Khalid Mahmood became the POA secretary general. Interestingly, Khalid, who had decided to contest the election for the post of secretary general from the panel of Syed Arif, represented Pakistan Karate Federation (PKF) as a voter because both his department Pakistan WAPDA and his federation AFP had not sent his nomination.
A powerful figure of current PPP government, Qasim’s chances were bleak from the onset because the former Olympian announced his candidature and started his campaign quite late. Despite full-fledged support from Pakistan Army and votes from federations under their influence, Akram Sahi was unable to win the elections. The message from Army that the chief wants Sahi to ‘take over’ and he must ‘pull out’ could not deter soft-spoken Syed Arif from contesting the elections as he was sure of his victory. Syed Arif contested with full confidence and vigour and was successful. It is pertinent to mention that presidential candidates Qasim and Akram Sahi had objected to formation of an election commission and certain election rules promulgated by the POA. They had criticized POA president Syed Arif for taking decisions in ‘undemocratic’ manner and without consulting the POA General Council or Executive Committee. However, they developed consensus for smooth conduct of the NOC elections after Syed Arif met them and took them into confidence. The trio sorted out thorny issues regarding the elections in an amicable way. Talking to media after the elections, Syed Arif said the main aim of contesting the elections for the third time was to give final touches to his plans and to fulfill all his dreams of strengthening the infrastructure and bring sponsorships from multinational companies and provide international standard facilities to Pakistan players so they can bring laurels for the country at international stage. “I was quite hopeful of winning the elections for the third time as I had got the complete backing of majority of sports federations,” he added. He said he would concentrate on promotion of sports at club and tehsil levels during his tenure. “My emphasis during my third term will be raising the sports infrastructure at the grassroots level.” Syed Arif said he held no grudges against any one as his rivals were part of the Olympic Family. “With the conclusion of the elections, there is no grouping now. I respect them all and will take their input whenever needed.” Syed Arif thanked his friends and well wishers for supporting him during the elections. “My friends had forced me to run for the president slot as they wanted me to complete outgoing projects for the betterment of sports in the country.” To a question, he said the Pakistan Sports Trust (PST) was established for the betterment of sports in the country and the PST provided financial assistance to national athletes. “During my two tenures a complete understanding and coordination was witnessed between the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) and the POA, which was never seen before due to which country’s standard of sports was declining sharply,” he maintained. The Pakistan Basketball Federation (PBF) did cast their vote as the Lahore High Court (LHC), dealing with their case admitted and confirmed the writ of the sitting body of the national federation, which was suspended two months ago after the POA had declared its entity null and void. The Pakistan Badminton Federation (PBF) and the Pakistan Cycling Federation (PCF) were ineligible to cast votes because their cases are pending in the courts. The Pakistan Equestrian Federation, being suspended, was also ineligible to vote. Olympic sports disciplines had three votes each, while non-Olympic sports disciplines had two votes each. The provincial Olympic associations, affiliated departments Pakistan Army, Pakistan Air Force (PAF), Pakistan Navy, Pakistan Railways, WAPDA, Higher Education Commission (HEC) and Pakistan Police had one vote each. Islamabad Olympic Association and FATA Olympic Association had a half vote each. The Athletes Commission of Pakistan had two votes while four votes were for the women members.
POA office bearers for next term of four years 2012-2016: President: Syed Arif Hasan. Vice presidents: Syed Aqil Shah, Chaudhary Muhammad Yaqoob. Shaukat Javed, Doda Khan Bhutto, Kamran Lashari, Saeed Iqbal Khan, Iftikhar Ahmad Tabassum, Muhammad Afzal Awan, Abdul Khaiq Khan and Ms. Fatima Lakhani
Secretary general: Muhammad Khalid Mahmood. Associate secretaries: Muhammad Jahangir, Zulfiqar Ali Butt, Hafiz Imran Butt, Hafeez Ullah Khan, Haider Lehri and Ms. Veena Masood. Executive committee: Khawar Parvaiz Shah, Muhammad Rashid Malik, Ahmad Yahya Khan, Wajid Ali Chaudhary, Ms. Sumera Sattar, Ms. Saba Shamim Akhtar and Ms. Nargis Rahim.
(Source Daily Times 5 Feb 2012)

Arif retains POA presidency

By: Azhar Khan | February 05, 2012 |

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LAHORE – Lt Gen (r) Arif Hassan retained the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) president slot after defeating Maj Gen (r) Akram Sahi and Qasim Zia in the POA elections which held for the first time in the history of Pakistan here on Saturday at a local hotel.

The total votes were 102 while 103 voters cast the votes and Gen (r) Arif Hassan took the lead with 48 and half votes as the half vote of FATA and Islamabad went to Gen (r) Arif and half to Gen (r) Akram Sahi who got 32 and half votes. The third contestant Qasim Zia, who is PHF president, succeeded in getting 21 votes.

After the elections, General Council meeting was held in which the winning candidate Gen (r) Arif Hassan announced his panel. Khalid Mehmood of Wapda was nominated as POA secretary while 10 vice presidents were also announced including Syed Aqil Shah, Ch M Yaqoob, Shaukat Javed, Doda Khan Bhutto, Kamran Lashari, Saeed Iqbal Khan, Iftikhar Ahmad Tabassum, M Afzal Awan, Abdul Khaliq Khan and Fatima Lashari. Haji M Shafiq was nominated as treasurer while M Jahangir, Zulfiqar Ali Butt, Hafiz Imran Butt, Hafeez Ullah Khan and Haider Lehri are nominated as associate secretaries. Khawar Pervaiz Shah, M Rashid Malik, Ahmad Yahya Khan, Wajid Ali Ch, Sumera Sattar, Saba Shamim Akhtar and Nargis Rahimtoola are nominated as member of executive committee.

Gen (r) Arif Hassan, talking to this scribe, said: “Forgetting about the past, we will now work together with unity purely for the promotion of sports across the country. There is no grouping in POA now and our top priority is just sports betterment in the country and for this, we will work together. The election was held in a very democratic way and in future too, such elections can be held after my tenure if required.”

“I have done many mistakes during my tenure and now I have leant a lot from my mistakes and my past. These elections also provided me a chance to overcome mistakes and work hard to raise the standard of sports across the country,” he added.

Secretary POA Khalid Mehmood told this scribe that he was thankful to Allah Almighty for this honour and also thankful to house which supported him fully.  “Though I was in a pressure but I fight like a sportsman with sportsmanship and in the end, I achieved this great honour for this, I am thankful to Allah and all my supporters.”  Losing candidate Maj Gen (r) Akram Sahi congratulated Gen (r) Arif Hassan for retaining his presidency said his full support was with the elected president.

“The election was held in a very good atmosphere and was fair and transparent. I heartily congratulate winning candidate Gen (r) Arif Hassan and assure my full cooperation in future for the promotion of sports across the country,” said Gen Sahi.

Meanwhile, talking exclusively to The Nation, International Olympic Committee representative Jerome Poivey, who came here to observe the election procedure, said that the election was fair and transparent.

“The election atmosphere was very good and I am happy to see sportsmanship during the elections as the losing candidates felicitated the winning candidate. During my short stay I did not feel any security issue here and I wish international events should be held here. Pakistan is a good country so if I get chance to come here, it will be my pleasure to visit it again,” the IOC observer concluded. 

(source The Nation 5 Feb 2012)

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)

POA ELECTIONS AND SPORTS FUTURE..

General (R) Arif Hasan, won elections of the association and elected for another four years securing 48.5 votes in the presence of IOC and OCA representatives and announced his panel on 4^th Feb 2012. All three Presidential candidates were giving their visions and plans for promotion of sports in Pakistan, now see what Gen Arif will do for promotion of sports in Pakistan. If we see his vision and statements during the elections campaign he said, main aim of contesting the elections for the third time is to give final touches to his plans and to fulfill all his drams of strengthening the infrastructure and bring sponsorships from multinational companies and provide international standard facilities to our players so they can bring laurels for the country at international stage. Although it is difficult but not impossible, but after the elections Gen Arif must be realized that this is last chance to do something for betterment of sports otherwise he will not be successful in future.

There is a dire need to explore the vision and plans of sitting POA President that What he will do? How he will get sponsorship? What are their main goals? How much time they require?

Pakistan Sports Trust, which was established for the promotion of sports in Pakistan has already facing financial crunch and there is no source of income, so it is the responsibility of the Gen Arif to take some measures to run the Trust as previously this organization disbursed millions of funds to the sports federations, for their tournaments, coaches training etc. Some people object or raise figure on PST funding, but they don’t know that how much funds disbursed except those who are not benefited. That is why no query or objection has been raised from the audit authorities during the process of audit of PST.

Now, another four years are available for the POA authorities to come forward and do their best to provide the maximum good infrastructure and clean the politics/grouping from the federations and show the progress. The other two candidates must also join hands with them and provide their point of view and plans for betterment of sports in Pakistan.

Geo doesn't pay any taxes

According to Minister of Information and Broadcasting Ms. Firdous Ashiq Awan Geo Super didnt pay any tax till its inception. This is another point which needs to be explained by the Geo group. I posted a post in favour of Geo Super but after comments received from Minister it creates a doubt.

I appeal to Geo authorities to conduct a program in which they explained the facts either they paid taxes or not. 

Ban on Geo Super Ban on Geo Super Ban on Geo Super due to IPL, Worldcup, Sports, Advertisement

Geo group continuously facing problem and criticized by the government. Once again the transmission of Geo super is being blocked by PEMRA in Pakistan. Is it fair? Why PEMRA doing this? What are the intentions of govt or authorities behind this scene?

These all questions raised when we hear ban  news. In my opinion it is because of two or three reasons. First Geo Super aired live ICC World Cup in Pakistan and all over the world where its transmission being aired. Although PTV also aired the matches but Geo Super got maximum viewership and advertisement instead of PTV.

Secondly Geo Super going to cover the IPL matches,  which are very demanding in our region if the telecast of Geo Super from Pakistan allow then the companies or advertisers will contact to Geo Super and PTV will only receive government ads.

Third is revenue generation of a tv channel, Geo Super is not bigger than PTV but the viewership and advertisement is major concern. The advertisers also select the media which has a good reputation and maximum viewership. So Geo Super always take advantage by promoting sports in Pakistan.

I am not a employee of Geo nor have any connection in Geo but being the citizen of Pakistan and a sports lover it is my thinking and opinion. Geo Super really promoted the sports not only Cricket and other popular games but other regional games also.

Mariah's twins show personality in womb

Heavily pregnant popstar Mariah Carey got a glimpse of her unborn twins' distinctive "personalities" following an ultrasound scan.
The 41-year-old singer, who is due to give birth to a son and a daughter with husband Nick Cannon, in the coming weeks, claims that a scan has enabled them to get a hint about the personalities of the two, reported OK magazine online. "You can tell the personalities a bit. In viewing our ultrasounds, our boy is all ready like Nick, like, 'Here I am, take my picture or don't, and our girl is coyly facing the other way, like, 'No pictures,' waiting for a proper debut. I took some ultrasound footage of them in the womb that I think they'll definitely find interesting later in life," said Carey.
The 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' hitmaker, also feels her 30-year-old husband will be a good father as he is devoted to their twins. "Nick is so excited about being a father. He already has this natural talent with children, they take to him right away. He's so nurturing, loving and fun. He definitely will be a hands-on dad. He already reads stories to my tummy," added Carey. 

(http://www.indianexpress.com/news/mariahs-twins-show-personality-in-womb/775676/)