PSB, POA remained in tussle over officials' accreditation ahead of Tokyo Olympics

By
Faizan Lakhani
|
The logos of the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) (left) and Pakistan Sports Board (PSB). — Facebook/File
The logos of the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) (left) and Pakistan Sports Board (PSB). — Facebook/File

KARACHI: The Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) remained in a tussle with Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) over the accreditation of its officials ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, documents released by POA on Monday revealed.

The POA has issued a 180-page document titled “fact-sheet”, which contains copies of several communication sessions between the PSB and the association around the time the Tokyo Olympics took place.

A thread of communication reveals that the PSB was, allegedly, insisting on having Olympics accreditation for its director-general, treasurer, minister of IPC, and secretary of IPC despite the deadline being passed.

The thread started with POA’s letter, signed by its secretary Khalid Mehmood, addressed to PSB that was sent on January 14, 2020, mentioning deadlines of submission of accreditation along with a definition of dignitaries.

The deadlines mentioned in earlier letters became irrelevant after Tokyo Olympics were postponed for a year.

The POA then shared an email, sent by PSB’s email address ([email protected]) carrying the name of Raja Zulfiqar Akhtar, providing details of a PSB official Mansoor Ahmed Khan for Tokyo Olympics.

The said email was sent on December 8, 2020.

This email is followed by a letter from POA to PSB, sent on March 13, 2021, advising PSB to arrange COVID-19 vaccinations for people mentioned in the list — carrying names of officials and athletes, including Ahmed Khan, as an official of PSB.

In response, PSB sent a letter to POA through Raja Zulfiqar Akhtar — director training PSB — on April 27, 2021, saying that Ahmed Khan was never nominated by PSB or any competent authority. It also mentioned that PSB will nominate names on a later date.

It is worth mentioning that the email account that was used to send details of Khan to POA was also operated by Akhtar and has been used by PSB in various communications with PSB.

The POA also took time to reply to the surprising letter from PSB.

In a strong-worded letter sent on May 22, the POA distances itself from internal matters of PSB and reminded the organisation that the email was received from the email address used for official communication and there was no further need to doubt that email.

In the same communication, the POA told PSB that the deadline for the accreditations for officials was April 9, 2021, and no further requests can be entertained.

There were more emails around how accreditation of Khan was sent on behalf of PSB before PSB requests accreditations for Colonel Asif Zaman, the DG PSB, and Nasrullah Rana, the treasurer of PSB.

Interestingly, this PSB email, on June 16, came from the same email address — [email protected].

Another email was sent from the same email address to POA, on June 18, requesting accreditation arrangements for Mohsin Mushtaq Chandana, secretary IPC.

The POA replies angrily on June 21 reminding the PSB that it was not possible to entertain its three officials as the deadline for officials’ accreditation had passed.

The POA letter also mentioned that the accreditation application of the IPC minister (who falls under the category of dignitary) was submitted to the organising committee, however, “The accreditation of her spouse as Accompanying Guest was not entertained by the Organising Committee Tokyo 2020.”