KARACHI, Sept 3: The president of the Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF) Zaffar Zuberi has issued yet another veiled threat to his vice-president for “hatching conspiracies” but at the same time admitted to having limited powers at his disposal.

In a tit-for-tat response to vice-president Shah Naeem Zafar’s letter which challenged Zaffar of not having any authority to expel him (Naeem) from the federation, he replied that although he had no such powers under the PBF constitution, he could at least recommend his expulsion to general body or executive committee of the federation.

In a letter dated Aug 24, Zaffar wrote to Naeem: “If you read my letter carefully, I have mentioned that I will recommend your expulsion from PBF. I am aware that I do not have authority but can recommend anything to the executive committee or general body. Both have powers to act under the constitution.

“I am also surprised that you are using office of a government organisation to hatch conspiracies against a national organisation (PBF). We reserve the right to bring this to the notice of the chairman of the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) and the concerned ministry,” warned Zaffar.

Naeem is also manager sports at KPT.

But while he once again resorted to arm-twisting tactics through his letter and threatened to subdue the rebellious vice-president, he didn’t explain as to why only Naeem would be expelled from the PBF and no action will be taken against the seven SBA officials who are now part of the “breakaway” SBA.

However, opening the door for diplomatic talks, the president requested Naeem to “think rationally and try to solve the problems instead of complicating it.”

Earlier, in an Aug 15 letter, Zaffar had threatened Naeem that he would recommend his expulsion from the federation if he failed to announce his disassociation as chairman of the “breakaway” SBA, formed by the rebel group led by Ali Akbar Shah.

Naeem had, in turn, had snubbed Zaffar and had advised him to “behave according to the stature of the post in PBF.”

The vice-president told the president that it was his inaction on the SBA polls issue which forced him to join the provincial association as its chairman.

Naeem and the rival group also accused Zaffar of going back on his promise of holding the elections and of becoming a party by acting as an observer of the SBA elections held with the blessings of the PBF Chairman Anwar Chowdhry.

Quite surprisingly, Zaffar in his Aug 24 letter conceded that he had told Ali Akbar and his associates that he had no powers under the constitution to help them hold the Sindh Boxing Association (SBA) elections.

“I admit that Mr Abid Brohi, Mr Ali Akbar Shah and others called on my residence. I told them clearly that I cannot help them as I have no such powers under the PBF constitution. I offered my services as an intermediary but didn’t get any satisfactory answer,” wrote Zaffar.

However, on July 30, in a statement to Dawn, Zaffar had said that he had promised the group that elections would be held within a week.

Contesting Naeem’s contention that the SBA polls were supervised by the SSB, Zaffar wrote: “No provincial body can receive acceptance until the PBF recognises it. The Sindh Sports Board has no authority to recognise any sports body.”