New Delhi: The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) has suspended the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) for a second time, citing third-party interference, which is a grave violation of the FIFA statutes. PFF was last suspended in 2017.
“This situation was prompted by the recent hostile takeover of the PFF headquarters in Lahore by a group of protestors and an alleged decision by certain individuals to remove the FIFA-appointed normalisation committee of the PFF led by Haroon Malik and to hand over the leadership of the PFF to Syed Ashfaq Hussain Shah,” the international governing body said in a statement.
Earlier this week, FIFA had issued a warning letter underlining that if the hostile situation remains unchanged, the Bureau of the Council will take the final decision. Since illegitimate takeover of the headquarters continues, as does restriction of FIFA-recognised office bearers to enter the building, PFF has been suspended.
FIFA said the suspension will be lifted upon receiving confirmation from the normalisation committee of the PFF regarding the “premises, accounts, administration and communication channels” returning under its full control and “it can continue to carry out its mandate without further hindrance”.
The normalisation committee was appointed in 2019, soon after PFF’s first suspension from October 2017 to March 2018 owing to “a court-appointed administrator taking over the PFF headquarters from then president Faisal Saleh Hayat”.
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Over 300 intellectuals, activists condemn hate speech against writer Amar Jalil
Around 300 intellectuals, human rights activists, poets, writers, lawyers, reporters, students, and teachers across Pakistan have issued a statement, condemning hate speech and death threats against writer Amar Jalil.
“The hate speech against the writer is a message that rule of law doesn’t prevail and that a small group of people can restrain freedom of speech and expression through violent means,” the statement read, urging several bodies including the Pakistan government, Supreme Court, federal and provincial ministries of law, religious affairs and human rights to take note of the threats being made against Jalil.
The statement comes following belated reactions by religious circles on remarks made by Jalil during Sindh Literature Festival.
Addressing Sindh Literature Festival three years ago, Jalil had said that “human beings cannot know or understand their creator because it was beyond their intellect”, which several clerics understood to be a denial of belief in the Almighty, according to what the Quran teaches.
The multi-lingual author — who has often been regarded as one of the most distinguished and controversial writers from the Sindh area of Pakistan, having critiqued Partition as “the biggest error in the history of mankind” — has been accused of blasphemy. A Rs 5 million bounty has also been placed on his head by a man from Umerkot district.
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