Govt seeks resignation from POA President Lt Gen (r) Arif Hasan

Govt seeks resignation from POA president over the recent failures in Tokyo Olympics.

The federal government has asked Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) President Lt Gen (r) Arif Hasan to resign from the post. He has been holding the office from the past 17 years.

As per the news source, Special Assistant to Prime Minister Shahbaz Gill along with Minister for IPC Dr. Fehmida Mirza has demanded resignation from the POA president, blaming him for all the ills in sports and failures at the Olympic level.

“I am sharing with you the decision we have reached today following the meeting with the prime minister. We demand the POA president to resign from the post along with his team so that the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) Election Commission should conduct new elections after settling all the pending issues,” Shahbaz Gill and IPC minister jointly said.

Shahbaz Gill added that Lt Gen (r) Arif Hasan was neither a government’s representative nor had the government had any hand in his appointment.

“They have their own process. It is wrong to assume that Arif Hasan is a government representative or that the government has anything to do with his appointment.

Dr. Fehmida has also criticized POA Secretary Mohammad Khalid Mehmood, saying that he did not have any representation.

“His boxing federation is not being recognized by the international body. We will recognize only those federations which would have international backing,” she added.

She also expressed her dismay over the POA’s decision to remove the name of the president of Pakistan as the Patron of the POA.

“The name of the head of state has been there since 1948. Why was the name of the head of the state has been removed in 2019? There was no obligation from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) then why the name has been removed,” she questioned.

Fehmida added that a sports policy would soon get cabinet approval.

“It will be tabled before the cabinet soon. We have already circulated the policy with the federations and now it will be tabled before the federal cabinet,” she said.