Sportsmen, official protest against Olympics House illegal possession

LAHORE (September 4, 2013): The officials of various national and provincial sports federations and organisations and sportsmen staged a protest demonstration here on Wednesday outside the Lahore Press Club against the illegal possession of the Pakistan Olympic House.

The protesters were holding ply cards and they chanted slogan in the favour of President, Pakistan Olympic Association, Lt Gen retd Syed Arif Hasan and termed the forceful possession of by a goon of armed people “a grave step to ruin country’s image abroad’ and to draw a disciplinary action against Pakistan by International Olympic Committee.

“POA is the house of country’s sports and its illegal possession by a rival POA is a biggest conspiracy against sports of Pakistan,” said the peaceful protesters.

Prominent among them were President, Pakistan Ju-jitsu Federation, Khalil Ahmad Khan, President, Pakistan Weightlifting Federation, Hafiz Imran Butt, President, Pakistan Karate Federation, Muhammad Jahangir and number of officials of national and provincial sports bodies.

They appealed to the government to take notice of the situation and to direct the concerned quarters to vacate the POA House from the possession of armed individuals backed by a rival faction of POA..

Khalil Khan said that POA led by Gen Arif is recognized by the IOC as well as Olympic Council of Asia and the forceful possession of the POA House comes as a big shock for those who are related to country’s sports.

“It is a very unfortunate incident and we strongly condemn it and appeal to the higher authorities to resolve this issue on top priority basis as delay can provoke the IOC to suspend Pakistan membership and the country can be deprived form taking part in international sports events abroad,” he said.

Meanwhile, DIG Zafar Abbas Luk, Senior Vice President, POA headed by Major Gen retd Mohammad Akram Sahi has dismissed the allegations of forceful possession of POA House and said genuine people have taken over the control of the POA House after their success in the elections of the National Olympic Committee.

“As per a decision of the apex court and according to the direction given in the national sports policy, Gen retd Arif was heading the POA illegally after running the POA for the third successive term,” he said.