Oheed Ahmed
ISLAMABAD— National Assembly Standing Committee on Sports Chairman Iqbal Mohammad Ali Khan has been requested to look into the matter of Sindh Olympic Association (SOA) Secretary Ahmed Ali Rajput’s involvement in embezzlement and corruption during the 30th National Games held here in 2007.
The NA body chairman met with two representatives each of 17 SOA member bodies including Sindh Boxing Association Secretary, Akram Khan, Sindh Netball Association (SNA), Secretary Mudassar Arain, Sindh Badminton Association Secretary, Saleem Piracha, Sindh Tug-of-War Secretary Akhtar Khan Durrani all of whom explained to him in detail the brewing crisis in SOA.
Seventeen SOA member bodies are demanding the suspension of association secretary Rajput after He called an emergency meeting of the SOA executive committee with multiple agendas.
“It is only after a majority of SOA associations came out to lodge their protest against Rajput’s still occupying the post of secretary despite being involved in so many wrongdoings that he called the meeting to affiliate more sports bodies with SOA just so he can tip the balance back in his favour,” said Arain.
“We had to bring this to the attention of the NA Sports Committee chairman,” he added.
The meeting called for August 1 is illegal and unconstitutional as this is a matter to be taken up by the SOA general council and not the executive committee. Such emergency meetings are called on a three-day notice with only a single agenda. But according to the letter issued on July 18 for the holding of the forthcoming meeting, it is being called to discuss five years’ audits (from 2005 to 2010), past activities, performances, etc., as well as affiliating more sports bodies.
But that is being seen as illegal as according to Article IX of the SOA constitution in the case of awarding affiliation to any new sports body, the executive committee is to follow Article VIII, which has 26 points. The executive committee is to examine whether the sports body in question fulfils those points or not following which it may be affiliated with the SOA.
“We have not even received the minutes of meetings of the general council held to discuss previous years’ activities, which should be held annually, by the way,” said the SNA chief.
“Neither were there any copies circulated of the SOA audit reports for the past five years and the secretary wants this all to happen in one go during the coming executive committee meeting?” He asked. The associations, frustrated anyway by being called to change their statements after the sudden transfer of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) investigation officer Rao Amir just when he had collected enough evidence on Rajput to find him guilty of corruption during the games, have strongly protested against the calling of the meeting by a man still under investigation.
“As per the SOA constitution, the post of association secretary should be given to the Associate Secretary Saleem Piracha while the investigation is underway and we have been reassured by the NA Sports Committee chairman that he will look into this matter.”
Meanwhile, when contacted by Dawn, the Chairman NA Standing Committee on Sports Iqbal Mohammad Ali Khan said: “Yes, I have been approached by the sports associations, who were kind enough to fill me on the matter.”
He added: “I called up the Pakistan Sports Board [PSB] Director Ameer Hamza to apprise him about the matter, too, as Rajput, no doubt, has some serious charges levelled against him and he should not even be allowed to work in the capacity of secretary in SOA until the inquiry is completed leave alone call emergency executive committee meetings with multiple agendas.
“SOA cannot even affiliate new sports bodies like this. But I have been informed that the meeting is mainly being called to discuss the association budget. Therefore I will be sending a letter asking them to only stick to that single point during the meeting and nothing else,” he concluded.
