Pakistan's new Olympic c​hief Arif Saeed faces huge challenges

Renowned industrialist Arif Saeed, who has been elected unopposed as the 13th president of Pakistan Olympic Association (POA), faces huge challenges ahead as head of the Olympic family.

Arif, owner of the Services Group Limited, has been chosen by the state and accommodated by the Olympic family, will be more powerful president especially during the rule of the PML (N).

Arif, who is also the president of Pakistan Rugby Union, will have to hold the 14th South Asian Games which Pakistan will host at the end of next year.

Allotted to Pakistan during the 2019 Nepal South Asian Games the biennial spectacle was rescheduled time and again due to covid-19, political instability and financial issues.

However, Pakistan’s government and the POA aim to host it at the end of 2025 which will be a huge step for the nation which has seen deep lows in its sports during the last so many years.

The country’s premier javelin thrower and Olympic gold medalist Arshad Nadeem is the only athlete who has been delivering successively during the last few years in international circuit.

The South Asian Games could have been held in time had respective regimes in the past few years took it seriously.

The POA top administration had discussed it with the then PTI regime. Former premier Imran Khan had given a go ahead to the event but nothing happened. POA also tried to expedite the process latter on but its strained relations with the IPC Ministry and Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) were the major impediments.

Now Arif, as head of the POA, is expected to use his connections with the top brass of the sitting regime and hold the South Asian Games in the most befitting way.

This will be the third time that the nation will be going to host the Games following its previous successive hosting in 1989 and 2004 in Islamabad in the era of former POA’s supremos Syed Wajid Ali Shah and Lt General (retd) Syed Arif Hasan.

Arif Saeed will also need to convince the state to stop IPC and PSB from enacting such laws which are against the Olympic charter and can go against the autonomy of the national sports federations.

Cordial relations, backed by merit and justice, between the state and POA is the panacea of all evils in the country’s sports. A joint venture from the state and POA will be needed to put the country’s sports on the path of development.

Arif will need to ensure that POA’s main obligation is not only to serve as a post-office but it can do even more for the sports development in the country.

In the era of former POA’s chief General Arif Hasan Pakistan Sports Trust (PST) once had played a key role in the sports development. Being an industrialist Arif Saeed also will need such a strategy to generate revenue so that it could help in the athletes’ development and add to the state’s financial assistance to the sector which has been hugely ignored.

NOC, backed by the state, can also manage foreign training tours for important national teams and athletes ahead of vital international assignments by negotiating with the NOCs of other nations.

Parallel federations

Arif will need to ensure no parallel association or federation exists in the country. There are so many parallel bodies working both at the central and provincial levels which have also put the athletes in a fix.

He will need to resolve the issue of Pakistan Weightlifting Federation (PWF), Pakistan Cycling Federation (PCF) and Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) on priority basis.

The PWF has been suspended by the PSB and is recognized by the POA and International Weightlifting Federation (IWF).

The PCF is recognized by the PSB and international cycling union (UCI) but it is not owned by the POA. Similarly, AFP is being recognized by the World Athletics and PSB but it is not owned by the POA. And this issue is damaging the athletes eventually.

The new POA chief should resolve the issue of star weightlifter Nooh Dastgir Butt also on priority basis. The PWF has severed ties with Nooh, who has to his credit gold in the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games. Nooh is such a fine athlete and if he is brought back to weightlifting, he can not only qualify for the 2028 Los Angeles Games but can also win medal there.

Meanwhile on Monday the electoral meeting of the POA general council was held here at Avari Hotel. Voting was held for various seats except those on whom the candidates were already elected unopposed

After the voting process the newly elected president Arif Saeed advised the house to work in its own domain and go ahead with the Olympic values.

POA’s unofficial election results:

Arif Saeed (president, unopposed); Mohammad Khalid Mehmood (secretary, unopposed); Mohammad Jehangir (deputy secretary, unopposed); Ahmer Mallick (treasurer, unopposed); Fatima Lakhani (senior vice—president, unopposed); Ishrat Ashraf (lady vice-president, unopposed); Andleeb Sindh (lady vice-president, unopposed); Tehmina Asif (lady associate secretary, unopposed); Mohammad Amir Jan (vice-president, 73 votes); Major Majid Waseem (vice-president, 73 votes); Aisam-ul-Haq (associate secretary, 68 votes); Wajid Ali (associate secretary, 67 votes); ExCO members: Hafiz Imran Butt (73 votes), Arshad Sattar (81 votes), Col Sadaf Akram (71 votes), Sumera Sattar (72 votes), Sana Ali (67 votes), Amna (73 votes)