FIFA appoints normalisation committee in PFF to pave way for elections

KARACHI: The world's football governing body, FIFA, on Friday announced that it has appointed a normalisation committee in Pakistan Football Federation (PFF), with a road-map to conduct its fresh elections.

The five-member normalisation committee will be chaired by Humza Khan, a former footballer with the Karachi United Football Club, it said, adding that other members comprised former PFF secretary and former national captain, Colonel Mujahid Tareen, as well as advocate Munir Ahmed Sandhana, Sikandar Khattak, and Syed Hassan Najib Shah.

The appointments were made consequent to a decision taken by the Bureau of the FIFA Council to appoint a normalisation committee for the PFF and the subsequent consultation and interview process undertaken by FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

The normalisation committee's mandate comprises running the PFF’s daily affairs, ensuring proper registration and scrutiny of Pakistan's clubs, drafting and ratifying an electoral code for the PFF with the assistance of FIFA and the AFC, organising and conducting elections at district and provincial levels, and organising and conducting elections of a new PFF executive committee.

In a statement, the FIFA said: “The members of the PFF normalisation committee will assume their duties with immediate effect and, as per standard procedure, will have to pass an eligibility check to be carried out by the FIFA Review Committee in accordance with the FIFA Governance Regulations.

“Their confirmation will be contingent upon the outcome of the eligibility check. Furthermore, the FIFA administration, in consultation with the AFC, reserves the right to revoke the mandate of any of the members of the PFF normalisation committee and/or to appoint further members at any time,” the statement added.

According to FIFA, the PFF normalisation committee would act as an electoral committee, the decisions of which were final and binding and none of its members would be eligible for any open position in elections under any circumstances even if they resign from their position.

“The specified period of time during which the PFF normalisation committee will perform its functions will expire as soon as it has fulfilled all of its tasks, but no later than nine months after its members have been officially appointed by FIFA – which means on 15 June 2020,” the FIFA said.

The FIFA also instructed the PFF to hand over the federation offices and its bank accounts to the normalisation committee by September 20, 2019.

Its statement also confirmed that the PFF's existing statutes were to be revised and it would be done once new a new executive committee was elected.

“The newly elected PFF executive committee will then be tasked with revising the statutes of the PFF, jointly with FIFA and the AFC, within one year of its election in order to bring them in line with the requirements of FIFA and the AFC,” the statement highlighted.