Revolt, chaos in Pakistan Weightlifting Federation

Around two dozen international weightlifters and referees have passed a resolution against the alleged malpractices of Pakistan Weightlifting Federation secretary Hafiz Imran Butt and have written the Pakistan Sports Board, the Pakistan Olympics Association and other relevant officials to take note of his wrong-doings.
They have also written to International Weightlifting Federation president Tamas Ajan about Imran’s alleged malpractices accusing him of involvement in human-trafficking. Hafiz Imran denied all the allegations and said that all the people who are accusing him are joyriders. He said that when he stopped sending these people to international events with the team they have started this dirty game. They alleged that he took Rs 500,000 from international weightlifter Idrees Butt for his own tour expenses. Then he arranged the visit of a person Waleed Mir to South Africa in September 2011 for participation in the weightlifting competition.
They further alleged that Irfan Butt, who is son of the PWF secretary was declared unfit for any sport, was sent to Uzbekistan for two-month training and later he was sent to the World Weightlifting Championship held in Paris in November 2011 as weightlifter in 77 kgs weight category returned home without even touching the bar. They further said that PWF also participated in Asian Senior Cup and Inter Club Championship in Tashkent in November last and Hafiz Imran took seven officials with him and there were just three weightlifters in the team and now he is preparing to send irrelevant persons to UK for participating in a power lifting championship. Hafiz Imran said that he had always selected weightlifters on merit and sent abroad only those who had performed and there was no violation of merit in selection of teams.