KARACHI: Pakistan on Sunday banned their ace boxer Mehrullah and his teammate Faisal Karim for life after the duo tested positive for cannabis following the South Asian Games in Colombo this August, writes Khalid Hussain.
A Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF) official told �The News� that both Mehrullah and Faisal would never be allowed to represent the country in any international meet. �Mehrullah and Faisal will never represent Pakistan again, they have been handed a life ban,� Secretary PBF Shakeel Durrani said, adding, �We have zero tolerance for doping.�
However, he stated that the two boxers would be allowed to compete in domestic events, saying, �They cannot represent Pakistan but can take part in local events.�
Normally, athletes banned for doping worldwide are disallowed to take part in any kind of competitions.
The duo was recently banned for six months by the South Asian Games committee.
Both the boxers won gold medals at this summer�s South Asian Games in the Sri Lankan capital. The Karachi-based Mehrullah is a reigning Asian Games champion and would have been among the front-runners for the featherweight gold in the 2006 edition of the Games to be held in Doha next month.
It was the second doping offence by both the pugilists who were also caught two years back at the South Asian Games in Islamabad.
�The boxers knew that they cannot afford to be caught for a second time but they didn�t care,� said Durrani who added that the decision to ban the boxers was unanimously taken by the PBF Executive Committee headed by the federation�s chairman Professor Anwar Chowdhry.
Banning Mehrullah was a bitter pill, the PBF had to take. He is arguably the most accomplished of the current generation of Pakistan boxers. His gold medal in the 2002 Asian Games in the South Korean city of Busan was celebrated in the entire country and the boxer who hails from the slums of Lyari was later rewarded with a cash prize of Rs5 million by President General Pervez Musharraf � the biggest ever purse given to a single sportsman by the Pakistani government in history.
�It is naturally a setback for us because a boxer like Mehrullah is not easily replaceable,� said Durrani. �But when it comes to the reputation of Pakistan, no body could be spared.�
He expressed that the life bans slapped on Mehrullah and Faisal would serve as a lesson for other national boxers. �We have set an example and believe that in future our boxers would stay away from the evil of doping.�
It is generally believed that the use of drugs, especially cannabis, is common among local boxers but Durrani dismissed the notion. �We don�t think that drugs are widely used by our boxers. It is just a bad habit that a few of them adopted and are now paying the price.�
Yet another depressing news for pakistan sports,these guys were only notable boxers in pakistan on international circuit.Mehrullah was probably best amature boxer in Asia in his weight catogary. Main thing is , there is no basic Education and Knowledge given to these players at grass root levels,therefore they do,nt have a clue what they r doing and howm uch it will harm their and country,s raputation.Their sports federations are equally to blame on these matters.