By Shazia Hasan [DAWN]
KARACHI, May 9: Karachi City Zonal Football Association Zone-V District West has got a stay-order against the recently-held Sindh Football Association (SFA) elections.
The election that saw Syed Khadim Ali Shah, a former Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) vice president, getting elected as the new SFA president unopposed along with his panel of vice presidents Mohammad Iqbal (Mirpurkhas), Azam Khan (Hyderabad), Mir Yaqoob Ali Shah (Sukkur) and Fateh Mohammad Baloch (Karachi-Malir) has been challenged in the court of law.
A suit for the cancellation of the election and permanent injunction has been filed by Jan Mohammad Jan of District West with the complaint that their nominations were never even considered during the process.
“We had nominated Zafar Baloch for president and Rahim Bakhsh Baloch for secretary from District West. But being considered as a rival group, we were never even informed about the election bylaws or issued the nomination forms in order to register our nominations by the Election Convener Mehar Bux,” informed the plaintiff Jan Mohammad while speaking to Dawn on Monday.
“What happened was that they suddenly announced the names of the winning candidates for the district football associations saying that the last date for filing nominations had already passed one day prior to the announcements,” he added.
“We were not even allowed a chance to compete in this so-called election. And it was the same for all the five district football associations of Karachi and not just District West although we are the first ones to raise our voices over the matter,” he announced.
Therefore, Election Convener of Zone-V District West Mehar Bux, PFF Provincial Election Commissioner Khalid Latif, and former SFA Vice Chairman Abdul Malik, Coordinator Qamar Yar Khan and President Ghulam Abbas Baloch have all been issued notices to appear before the court on April 25 to explain their failure in registering the other nominations.