The suspension of Pakistan football by FIFA is finally coming to an end after the control of the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) headquarters was being given back to the Normalization Committee (NC).
FIFA banned Pakistan a year ago after citing “outside interference” when unauthorized personnel took control of PFF headquarters in Lahore instead of the FIFA-appointed Normalization Committee. The ban on Pakistan’s activities in the sport was not be lifted until the control of the Football headquarters was handed back to the NC appointed by FIFA.
After the court-elected PFF led by Ashfaq Hussain Shah seized control of the headquarters at the end of March last year, the Haroon Malik-led NC had been in talks with the government — in particular, Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Dr. Fehmida Mirza — to resolve the latest crisis in the country’s football governing body.
The NC will now look to complete the mandate it was assigned by FIFA by holding fresh elections of the PFF which has been surrounded in one crisis after the other since 2015. The NC has already provided an eight-month roadmap to the government for holding the elections once it regains control of the PFF headquarters.
Dr. Mirza held a virtual meeting with officials of FIFA 0and the Asian Football Confederation earlier this week and assured them that the PFF headquarters will soon be handed over to the NC.
Although the IPC Minister had announced in a joint news conference in the first week of February that the NC would be handed the headquarters within two weeks, the delay occurred due to the cancellation of the lease agreement that the PFF had with the Punjab government.
Ashfaq and his officials who came into power through a PFF election held by the Supreme Court in December 2018 which was not recognized by FIFA, had already been evicted from the headquarters in November with the property having been ceased by the Lahore deputy commissioner.
