LAHORE: It’s taken barely nine months for the bubble to burst.

Talha Talib’s sensational performance at last year’s Tokyo Olympics, where he finished fifth in the 67kg class, had provided hopes of a golden future for Pakistan’s weightlifters.

But now a doping scandal threatens Pakistan’s international weightlifting future.

The Pakistan Weightlifting Federation faces a lengthy ban from the International Weightlifting Federation after six of its weightlifters, including Talha, were provisionally suspended by the International Testing Agency over doping offences.

Talha and two others, Abubakar Ghani and Sharjeel Butt, were due to take part in this year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

They are now out of the Games, due to begin in July, and their coach Irfan Butt — the son of PWF president Hafiz Imran Butt — also facing suspension.

There was no official statement by the PWF on Friday despite several attempts by Dawn for a comment.

There was also no reaction from the Pakistan Olympic Association, which in the past suspended the Athletics Federation of Pakistan after three athletes tested positive for doping at the South Asian Games in 2019.

The POA has formed a committee to probe doping cases in the national kabaddi team but the PWF is a real test case for the country’s Olympic body, which has very friendly terms with PWF chief Imran.

At the Olympics, Imran coached Talha, who tested positive for norandrosterone, a banned steroid, twice within 12 days last year.

The first test was on November 29 with the second during the IWF World Championships in Uzbekistan, where he won bronze in the snatch.

Abubakar, meanwhile, tested positive for the prohibited hormone and metabolic modulator tamoxifen metabolite during the Championships where he was 13th among 61 competitors in the 61kg class.

Sharjeel, who competes in the 55kg class, and three others — Ghulam Mustafa, Abdur Rehman and Farhan Amjad — meanwhile refused to give their samples to an ITA team which raided the Railways Stadium in Lahore on November 10.

The quartet had asked ITA investigators for their identities, which the latter refused to show and waited for an hour before putting that case into non-compliance.

“A joint ITA and World Anti-Doping Agency investigation, initiated on the basis of ITA intelligence, also resulted in the ITA asserting apparent Anti-Doping Rule Violations agains four Pakistani weightlifters under Article 2.3 of the IWF Anti-Doping Rules (Evading, Refusing or Failing to Submit to Sample Collection) for refusing to submit to sample collection during an attempted out-of-competition test conducted by the ITA in Pakistan on 10 November 2021,” the ITA said in a statement.

Farhan is the son of Amjad Amin Butt, the PWF vice-president who was formerly secretary general of the country’s weightlifting body. Waqas Akbar was their trainer at the Railways Stadium.

None of the six weightlifters challenged the ‘B’ sample as time for that had elapsed.

“All six athletes have been informed of the cases and have been provisionally suspended until the resolution of the matters,” added the ITA statement. “

During the period of provisional suspension, the athletes cannot inter alia participate in any capacity in any competition or any other activity either at the international or national level organized by any signatory of the World Anti-Doping Code.

“The prosecution of the cases is also being handled entirely by the ITA. Given that the cases are underway, there will be no further comments during the ongoing proceedings.”

PWF’s fate is due to be decided at the IWF’s Executive Committee meeting slated for next month in Greece.

Any country with three or more doping offences within a year faces a ban of up to four years along with fine of up to $500,000.

The members of the Pakistan team who have not been caught in doping offences are training at the camp in Lahore for the Commonwealth Games.

They include Nooh Dastagir Butt in the superheavyweight category, Hanzala Dastagir Butt in the 109kg class and Haider Ali at 81kg.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2022