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Hajra urges PM Imran to intervene over PFF suspension
Pakistan captain believes sports should be ‘a priority’ during former cricket captain’s tenure
KARACHI:
Is it not ironic to have a former sportsman as the Prime Minister of a country but still the country’s football federation receives suspension from Fifa, despite football being the sport of the people, the sport that has been most diverse in its way with the Pakistanis.
Pakistan women’s football team captain Hajra Khan has urged former cricketer and now PM Imran Khan and the President of Pakistan Dr Arif Alvi to intervene and convince a group of former Pakistan Football Federation(PFF) officials to leave the headquarters that they took over on March 27, which prompted Fifa to suspend Pakistan’s membership on Wednesday.
The national women s team captain said athletes have nowhere to go.
Hajra Khan, the Pakistan women s national football team captain, is disheartened by the Pakistan Football Federation s (PFF) recent suspension by FIFA due to third-party interference. In a video posted on social media, the captain was visibly distraught with the recent updates. This is the second such suspension for the nation s football governing body in the last four years.
Khan felt embarrassed and ashamed by the news. Today I speak in utmost sadness. PFF was banned by FIFA today for the second time in the last five years, she said.
PFF suspended for second time in three years
Sports
April 8, 2021
KARACHI: FIFA on Wednesday suspended Pakistan due to third party interference, a decision that puts the nation into international isolation for the second time in three years.
The country had remained suspended for six months from October 2017 to March 2018 because of the same issue.
“The Bureau of the FIFA Council suspended the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) with immediate effect due to third-party interference, which constitutes a serious violation of the FIFA Statutes,” FIFA said in a statement.
The recent take-over of the PFF headquarters from a group of officials led by Ashfaq Hussain Shah forced the world body to take the decision. “This situation was prompted by the recent hostile takeover of the PFF headquarters in Lahore by a group of protestors and an alleged decision by certain individuals to remove the FIFA-appointed normalisation committee of the PFF led by Haroon Malik and to hand over t
KARACHI: Pakistan Football Federation’s inevitable suspension by FIFA was confirmed on Wednesday.
Yet, Ashfaq Hussain Shah whose move to take over the PFF headquarters led to the ban is still seeking dialogue with the world’s football governing body to resolve the issue.
“We are open to a dialogue with FIFA,” Ashfaq, who was elected president in a PFF election held by the Supreme Court in December 2018 which wasn’t recognised by FIFA, told Dawn. “We want them to listen to our grievances with the Normalisation Committee it appointed in Pakistan and find a way to resolve this matter.”