Key alliance formed ahead of Pakistan football elections

Mohsin Gilani and Hafiz Zakaullah have entered into an electoral alliance for the upcoming elections of the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) being held in Lahore on Tuesday.

Sources privy to the development told Nuktathat both have reached a consensus and the process on how to contest the elections will be sealed soon.

Sources also said that under the agreement Mohsin Gilani will act as the PFF president for the initial one year and then Zaka will come for the rest of the tenure as PFF chief under a certain process. For the initial year, Hafiz Zakaullah will act as a senior vice-president of the PFF.

Both parties held long discussions at Lahore and are going to meet again to give final touches to the process which has almost been sealed.

Zaka, also a businessman, is a senior member of the Punjab Football Association (PFA) from Gujranwala while Mohsin Gilani is a former FIFA Development officer.

Nukta understands that Zaka group had to accept Gilani's demands to make him as PFF president for initial one year because he had four votes and was seen as a trump card in the entire electoral enterprise.

The other candidate for the PFF presidency is Karachi-based lawyer and owner of Karachi United FC Taha Ali Zai who has the backing of the Zahir Shah group.

Zahir, also a former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health minister, was set to run for the PFF presidency but his suspension at the eleventh hour forced his group to bring in Taha Ali Zai as their candidate for the PFF's presidency.

The Tuesday's electoral meeting will also be attended by the observers and officials from both FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

Zaka-Gilani alliance was reached after tough talks as confidence matter was a complicated thing in the whole process. Sources said that Gilani will resign after one year and Zaka then will be brought as PFF's supremo.

Sources said that Zaka has three votes from Sindh, two from Punjab as Naveed Lodhi's vote is not certain, one from Pakistan Football Referees Association (PFRA) and a woman Congress member.

Gilani has four votes while he also stresses, according to sources, that he has also the support of two other voters. Sources said that Taha Ali Zai has three Balochistan votes and two from KP. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has two votes after Zahir Shah's suspension as KP's chief.

However, sources reveal that seven departmental votes will play a major role in the electoral process.

Sources said that top level effort is being made to push state votes towards Taha Ali Zai. Despite electoral alliance between Zaka and Gilani things are not yet certain that who will win.

Due to internal rift and legal disputes among various factions Pakistan football suffered a lot since April 2015.

During the last ten years FIFA had to suspend Pakistan for three times due to third party's interference.

Even FIFA-installed Normalization Committee had to take around six years to hold elections.

Tuesday will be very important day for Pakistan football. If elections are held successfully, it will pave the way for reviving the country's football as the development process will start afresh.

There will be a massive difference between the PFF's presidency in the previous regime and now when a new president will come.

In the era of Faisal Saleh Hayat, the former PFF president, national associations did not get enough funds from FIFA and AFC for football development. They only used to get FIFA Goal Projects but when Infantino became FIFA president he massively increased funds of associations and that worked well but not for Pakistan as it faced its own conflict and legal issues during all these years and it was unfortunate.

However, with the election of a new PFF president, Pakistan would start getting it's share properly from FIFA and AFC and is also more likely to get its bulky dues.