Col Junaid, Masnoor Elected PJF President, Secretary For Next Four Years

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th August, 2016) : Pakistan Army's Sports Directorate Secretary Col Junaid Alam was elected as president of Pakistan Judo Federation (PJF), while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Masnoor Ahmed was elected as its secretary for the next four-year term on Saturday.

The elections were held here at a local hotel in which 26 members of affiliated units of PJF took part to elect their representatives. International Judo Federation's (IJF) representative Gerard Benone observed the elections. The outgoing PJF president Col Rana Shujat Ali, who completed two tenures, was elected as Chairman of the federation.

Professor Dr Ibadat Yar Khan was elected as senior vice-president, Dr Bashir Ahmed, Abdul Malik, and the outgoing secretary Masood Ahmed, who also completed two tenures were elected as vice presidents.

Fehmida Butt was elected as PJF women wing's vice president. The PJF will elect one more vice-president in its General Council meeting. Besides, eight-members of executive council were elected for the next term.

Except for secretary's slot, all other office-bearers were elected unopposed. For the PJF secretary's slot there were three candidates in the run - Mansoor Ahmed of KPK, Pakistan Army's Zafar Iqbal and WAPDA's Ramzan Butt.

Mansoor, who is also elder brother of Masood Ahmed, bagged 15 votes, while the other two contestants got two votes each. Later, talking to media the newly-elected PJF president said that he would do his best to raise standard of judo in the country.

"It's a big responsibility but I will utilize all my energies and expertise to lift the standard of judo in Pakistan. Our sports have been in so much turbulence for the past several years but despite that our judokas have been doing well at the international level.

This shows that there was no dearth of talent in the country and we only need a focused approach to excel in the game," he said. He expressed the resolve to take all stakeholders along and start a new era of judo in the country.

He said Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) had been very cooperative and assisting the PJF in all its endeavours. "I'm also thankful to IJF for sending their representative to Pakistan to observe our elections," he said. The newly-elected secretary Mansoor Ahmed thanked the members for reposing trust in him and vowed to fulfill their expectations.