By our correspondent
KARACHI: FIFA handed a nine-month more extension to its appointed Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) Normalisation Committee.
The committee’s mandate was scheduled to expire on Friday (March 15) and further extension was handed.
It means that NC will now have at its disposal a sufficient timeline of nine months until December 15 to complete the electoral process which it has already initiated although with load of irregularities in structuring elections data which was also widely criticised by the stakeholders in Pakistan.
“The Council confirmed that the mandate of the Normalisation Committee for the Pakistan Football Federation will be extended until 15 December 2024 to allow for the completion of the existing mandate and electoral process,” FIFA said in its press release after it’s council meeting.
According to sources Pakistan’s matter was discussed in length in the FIFA Council meeting on March 14. It was observed that due to intricate club registration and scrutiny process the elections were getting delayed. The whole episode of NC since it’s installment in 2019 was discussed. The Council was told that the elections in 142 districts will be completed in March and then the elections will be held at the provincial and PFF level.
It was also told that 85 percent club scrutiny has been completed.
Sources said that the complexity of the PFF constitution was also discussed. The council hoped that as substantial progress has been made and a fair and transparent elections through a transparent electoral procedure will ensure Pakistan getting an elected set up towards the end of this year.
Haroon Malik-led NC has been widely criticised by the stakeholders in Pakistan for the last few months for its seemingly reluctant approach towards the electoral process. Rumours also circulated a few days ago that the NC’s composition will be changed and some new people will be inducted into the committee which has so far failed to hold the PFF elections despite the fact that it started working in September 2019. However nothing like that happened.
The initial two years under former NC chairman Hamza Khan were a total failure and the last two years under Haroon witnessed a focus on handling mostly national teams international engagements while ignoring the key domestic events including the Premier League, B-Division League and National Challenge Cup which were held regularly in the era of former PFF chief Faisal Saleh Hayat whose final years while at the helm of affairs were marred by rift and legal disputes which eventually forced FIFA and the AFC to install NC in order to hold the elections of the PFF.
NC has started district elections process and it can easily hold the PFF elections inside six months but FIFA showed more generosity and gave it a nine-month extension.
