IOC member Shahid Ali in advisory committee from South Asian region: Three Pakistanis named in OCA standing committees

The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) has finalised its standing committees during an executive board meeting held in Almaty (Kazakhstan) under the chairmanship of its president Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahd Al Sabah, OCA advisor Muhammad Latif Butt told Daily Times here Wednesday. “Theses committees have been formed to provide opportunities to the smaller National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and give them representation in the Asian body,” added Latif Butt, a former Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) secretary general.

Latif Butt, also a former OCA vice president, said the smaller NOCs were ignored in the past and the influential NOCs used to monopolise and take lion’s share in the standing committees. “In the new setup, due consideration has been given to all the NOCs on the principle of broad based selection, suitability, experience and technical expertise,” he added.

Latif Butt said the chairmen of the standing committees were consulted before the final selection. Sixteen members have been selected from the South Asia Zone in the OCA standing committees for the next term of 4 years 2007-2011. “India, Bangladesh and Bhutan have one representative each, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan have two representatives and Pakistan, Nepal and Maldives have three members,” he said.

The existing committees include athletes, culture and education, finance, information and statistics, media, medical, rules, sports, women. The newly established committees include sports for all, sports and environment, sports and peace, anti doping, coordination, advisory.

Standing Committees:

Pakistan: Khawaja Farooq Saeed in rules committee, Mohammad Yahya in culture and education committee and Fatima Lakhani in women’s committee. Syed Shahid Ali Shah, IOC member in Pakistan has been selected in the OCA advisory committee from South Asia region.

Maldives: Zahir Naseer in the finance committee, Muhammad Mahid Shareef in sports and environment committee and Ibrahim Ismail in sports committee.

Nepal: Dhruba Bahadur Paradhan in rules committee, Rabi Rajkarnikar in sports for all committee and Puroshttam Prasad Shrestha in information and statistics committee.

Afghanistan: Anwar Jakdalak in rules committee and Mrs Sabrinia Saqieb in women’s committee.

Sri Lanka: Hemasiri Fernando in coordination committee and HU Silva in the sports and environment committee.

Bangladesh: Kutabuddin in sports and environment committee.

Bhutan: Pema Tanzin in sports for all committee.

India: Dr Manmohan Singh in medical committee.

Source: Daily Time Pakistan