KARACHI: The new set of office-bearers of the Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Federation who returned unopposed formally took over for the next term of four years (2020-2024) on Tuesday.

Election Commissioner Ayub Bawany announced the names of 12 members of the committee at the annual general body meeting held at a local hotel. Strangely, only 20 members out of 258 were in attendance that left much to be desired.

At the outset, the outgoing president Munawwar Hussain Shaikh expressed gratitude to all members who have worked with him, sponsors and media for their wholehearted support. He also welcomed the new president Jawed H. Karim and his committee and hoped they will carry forward the legacy and high standards set by honorary life chairman Ali Asghar Valika.

He also presented the activities report and get the nod of the general body for audited accounts from July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020.

“I’ve left Rs2.7 million in the accounts of PBSF,” he told Dawn in response to a query.

The 54-year-old Jawed is an old hand and has been associated with the PBSF since 1992 on various posts. He was senior vice-president in the last set-up.

In addition, he had served as secretary of Karachi Club for record six times.

Meanwhile, Jawed faces manifold challenges the foremost being to make the institution stronger rather then individuals. For doing so he has to keep powers in his hands and come out of the shadow of Alamgir Shaikh.

Contrary to other national federations where secretary enjoys power, the president runs the show in PBSF.

His another important task will be to bring new sponsors and enhance the players prize money and allowance keeping in view the inflation.

Since both Tahir Ahmed and Alamgir Shaikh have retired from Jubilee Insurance and economic crisis due to Covid-19, the firm may pull out its support.

It is pertinent to mention that the NJI third national ranking tournament could not take place this year after the NBP Cup which is a true indicator of their lack of interest. As regards the prize money, it needs to be doubled forthwith for all the national ranking events.

It may be mentioned that the winner used to get Rs100,000 quarter-of-a-century back and getting the same today.

Setting up snooker academies in the provincial capitals is another task for the new president. Unfortunately, despite tall claims there’s no academy in the country.

Jawed should also take stock of the snooker tables and ensure that they are not sold again.

He should also put an embargo on foreign tours of office-bearers.

He should also recommend the case of Pride of Performance award to be given to Hamza Akbar for winning the Asian title at Kuala Lumpur in 2015 by defeating legendary Indian cueist Pankaj Advani which is no mean achievement.

The PBSF should have savings of at least Rs10m in its kitty for rainy day, but due to lavish spending and wrong and abrupt decisions it has become solely dependent on government funding.

It is high time that the new chief should vacant the office premises and shift it to some members office to save rent and other expenses.

The PBSF is flouting its own constitution by using PBSA at all forums despite changing its nomenclature in 2012 which needs to be looked into.

The new committee is as follows:

Jawed H. Karim (president0, Abdul Qadir Memon (senior vice-president), Abdul Wahid Qadir,(vice president), Zulfiqar Ramzi (secretary) and Irfan Motan (treasurer).

Executive committee: Amin Bawany, Mohammad Ashfaq, Naveed Kapadia, Shabbir Hussain Daruwala, Nisar Bhagat, Rasheed Jambo,and Ali Fayyaz.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2020