Faisal to challenge LHC decision in Supreme Court [Nation]

LAHORE – Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat has termed the Lahore High Court (LHC) decision as illegal and ultra vires and decided to challenge it in the Supreme Court with the conviction that merit and justice will prevail.

Talking to this scribe on Thursday, Faisal said: “Our genuine prayers were not listened while on the other hand, the prayers of other parties were not maintainable because Pakistan law is very clear about it that the PFF is a private entity not a government organisation and the writ jurisdiction is only applicable to government, semi government or those bodies having involvement of government. Our legal team is preparing the appeal and we hope that the Supreme Court will listen to our genuine prayers and merit and justice will prevail.”

“Our football teams had to take part in the upcoming events like SAF U-16 Championship from August 8, AFC U-16 from first week of September, AFC U-19 Championship in October, National Women Championship from first week of August, Pakistan Premier League from end of August, National U-19 Championship from August 10 and many other events. The football activities were totally stopped due to qabza mafia on the football house and illegal freezing of our accounts which deprived Pakistani youth of participating in competitive national and international football,” Faisal lamented.

About holding of PFF elections, Faisal said that he didn’t get any court order. “If I get any court order, then I must have to abide by the law of land.” He also clarified the court that he was not alone who was elected rather 16 members were elected in the PFF elections and then it wasn’t he who conducted the elections rather it was duly elected electoral committee, elected on November 24, 2014, which conducted the PFF elections that were also duly recognized by the FIFA and AFC.

“The PFF elections were held in fair and transparent way under FIFA-AFC observer. Article 17 of FIFA clearly says, if there will be any third party interference in the affairs of any associate body, the FIFA has right to ban it. If government-supported qabza mafia keeps on interfering in the PFF matters, Pakistan football can face FIFA ban,” Faisal concluded.

Earlier, the Lahore High Court (LHC) Tuesday in its statement issued contempt notice to Faisal Saleh Hayat and its federation for holding election.

A football association had filed the petition and said that the football federation had held election despite that the court had stopped it from doing so. The petitioner stated that thus the federation had committed contempt of court.
The petitioner prayed the court to initiate contempt proceedings against the football federation president for violating the court’s order.

However, Faisal Saleh Hayat told the bench that he did not receive court’s order and he was not party in the football federation case.

After hearing both sides, the court issued contempt notice to Faisal Saleh Hayat and his federation and sought reply by September 18.