KARACHI, June 27: Sindh boxing affairs took yet another ugly turn on Wednesday when a second provincial association cropped up amid allegations of fake elections held in Hyderabad.

A group of individuals backed by chairman Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF) Anwar Chowdhry organised the Sindh Boxing Association (SBA) polls although rebel district association officials have already held the SBA elections on June 22 in Mirpurkhas.

Ali Akbar Shah, the secretary of SBA elected on June 22, didn’t mince words in saying that blue-eyed boys of Chowdhry being led by previous SBA secretary Akram Khan held fake elections to once again install their favourites.

“We had already held the district associations elections well before Chowdhry-supported persons raised parallel district associations at the behest of Chowdhry whom we don’t consider the chairman of PBF any more.

“The elections held today were a farce and were not attended by the Sindh Olympic Association (SOA) secretary Ahmad Ali and secretary sports, Government of Sindh, Ghulam Akbar Bokhari,” Ali Akbar told Dawn.

Akbar said several officials who were mentioned as contestants were either fake or belonged to districts such as Larkana, Badin, Khairpur, Sukkur and Dharki, where even boxing and boxers didn’t exist.

“Rauf Qureshi who represented Karachi East is a masseur of Chowdhry, Mohammad Ismail who represented Karachi Malir is PBF’s official typist, Ghulam Mustafa is not a Karachi West official while Syed Badshah never went to contest the elections but he is being mentioned as senior vice-president. Juma Khan is a nobody in Karachi South Association but has been elected as treasurer.

“Ghulam Mohammad Rind has already been elected our vice-president on June 22 and Yar Mohammad Qambrani the associate secretary. Then how could these two officials be elected chairman and associate secretary today? These elections were nothing but a cruel joke,” said Akbar.

He added that Faheemuddin Khan, who had been elected vice-president in Hyderabad, was debarred five years ago by the then SBA president Zafar Zuberi for turning professional despite being an amateur boxer.

Interestingly, SOA secretary Ahmad said that he went to Hyderabad as an “observer” but was far from convincing when asked if the elections were genuine.

“As an observer, my job was to just see the polls process. I think elections were genuine as nobody raised any objection. I have submitted my report to the SOA executive body ,” he said.

The official was, however, at loss of words when asked what purpose did he serve by observing elections while the SBA had already been held polls on June 22.

While he admitted that it was his duty to ascertain that district association officials contesting the polls were genuine and true representatives, he emphasised that “the rival groups should have informed the SOA during Wednesday’s elections that they have already held the polls.”

“Nobody from the rival group came to the SOA to inform that they are holding elections on June 22. So we will consider today’s elections as genuine,” he said but disagreed when asked could it be considered a matter of ego for the SOA whose role was seemingly partisan.

Ali Akbar, however, contradicted Ahmad by saying that the SOA president Faqir Ayazuddin was informed about the June 22 elections verbally as well as in writing.

Surprisingly, the SBA press release and electoral roll call faxed by Akram did not have the signature of secretary sports Ghulam Akbar as “observer”, while sports officer for Government of Sindh, Makhdoom Irshad Ali, confirmed that the government official never came to Hyderabad on Wednesday.

Astonishingly, no less than four chairmen were elected in Hyderabad, making the process look dubious and an exercise to appease several individuals at the same time.

While Shakeel Durrani and Akram were re-elected president and secretary, Chowdhry also managed to stick to the provincial body as the “honorary life president.”

Office-bearers:

Ghulam Mohammad Rind (chairman), Younus Pathan (senior vice-chairman), Saleem Chand, Ashiq Ali (vice-chairmen), Anwar Chowdhry (honorary life president), Shakeel Durrani (president), Syed Badshah Khan (senior vice-president), Faheemuddin Khan, Qamaruddin Sheikh, Khuda Bukhsh (vice-presidents), Akram Khan (secretary), Yar Mohammad Qambrani, Mohammad Ismail (associate secretaries), Saleem Qambrani (information secretary), Juma Khan (treasurer), Majeed Brohi (press secretary), Mohammad Ashraf (office secretary).

Executive committee: Akram Ansari, Khawaja Jawaid, Abdul Hameed, Riaz Ahmad Baig, Sikandar and Saeed Ahmad.