Football fraternity seeks more time to secure voting rights before PFF elections

The FIFA Normalisation Committee has proposed PFF district elections from May 15, 2023.

However, the Pakistani football community is demanding more time to comply with PFF statutes to secure voting right before the PFF elections kick off.

The development came during the second meeting of representatives of the football community at a hotel in Lahore, where PFF Normalisation Committee (NC) Chairman Haroon Malik showed a strong will to kick off the PFF elections on May 15.

Welcoming the participants, NC Chairman Haroon Malik, flanked by other NC members including Barrister Haris Azmat, Saud Hashimi and Shahid Niaz Khokhar, said the PFF election process was well under way, Club Registration had been completed through a massive technology based drive and Club Scrutiny will be completed in April. After this, PFF district elections will be held. In response, the participants of clubs urged the PFF NC to provide more time to the clubs in order to register themselves in the list of active clubs. “For now, we do not want to miss the voting opportunity.”

After several requests by the participants of the meeting for enabling the clubs to fulfill statutory requirements by extending the timelines for clubs’ registration, the Chairman NC has requested the football fraternity members present in the meeting to nominate their representatives having legal expertise to form a committee which should then work closely with the FIFA NC so that the election process can be carried out at a speedy pace in accordance with the PFF statutes.

The house has also emphasized on FIFA NC to carry out transparent physical scrutiny of the clubs to identify and eliminate the ghost elements in the system.

Saud Hashimi, a member of NC heading the Pakistan Football Connect (PFC) Programme, informed about the club registration process, which provides the basic structure for the election process. He also shared the data of the clubs which have come into the fold of PFF connect for the first time and the success story of ‘PFF at your doorsteps’ campaign in which a mobile van is being sent to every corner of the country to register new football clubs.

NC member Shahid Niaz Khokhar briefed the house on the salient features of the previous meeting which was held in the presence of FIFA & AFC Mission during their Pakistan visit in January.

The participants of the meeting belonging to all segments of the football community have bestowed their confidence in the Normalization Committee endeavors to resolve the long-standing deep-rooted problems of football in Pakistan. NC chairman and members have reiterated their determination to hold bottom-to-top free and transparent elections to hand over the command of Pakistan football to the elected PFF congress as per the PFF constitution. 

It was unanimously decided to establish a representative committee of the football community to move swiftly toward the PFF elections while complying with the statutory requirements of the clubs.