PESHAWAR
The Afghanistan female footballers evade Taliban, now in Pakistan and are in safe hands, former Vice President of the Ashfaq Hussain Shah led-Pakistan Football Federation Sardar Naveed Haider Khan told APP on phone from Lahore on Wednesday.
Sardar Naveed Haider Khan, who also served Pakistan Football in different capacity and somehow helped Pakistan Football and the players of Football in Pakistan positively, said that Female footballers from Afghanistan along with their families crossed the Torkham border last night when Officials of the FC and Assistant Commissioner Khyber Akbar Iftikhar welcome them on arrival. He disclosed that the Pakistani government issued emergency humanitarian 30-day visas to evacuate them from their country following the Taliban takeover.
The footballers belonging to the national junior girls U14, U16, and U19 team, were facing threats from the Taliban due to their involvement in sports. “We know them all as they are from our football family and that is why now they are in safe hands,” Sardar Naveed Haider said.
He said Football for Peace and another organization along with Pakistan Football Federation helped them out with whatever facilities the players needed. He said all the Footballers and their families have been accommodated in Football House Lahore.
He said the teams had been taken straight to Lahore from the Torkham border last night. They had been originally due to travel to Qatar, where Afghan refugees have been housed at a facility for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, but were left stranded after a bomb blast at the Kabul airport on August 26, 2021, last.
He said, most of the Afghanistan national women team had flown out in the last week of August after an arrangement with the Australian government, the youth team were unable to get flights because they lacked passports and other documentation.
He said that 32 footballers — a total of 115 people, including their families — to Pakistan was initiated by British-based NGO Football for Peace in cooperation with the Pakistani government and the Pakistan Football Federation of Ashfaq Hussain Shah led, which isn’t recognized by FIFA.
“We launched these efforts a few weeks ago and we’re extremely thankful to the government and PFF President Ashfaq Hussain Shah and Vice President Aamir Dogar for facilitating us,” Pakistan Ambassador of Football for Peace Sardar Naveed Haider Khan, a former member of Ashfaq’s PFF, said.
The footballers and their families proceeded from Peshawar to Lahore where they were housed at the PFF headquarters, the takeover of which by the court-elected PFF of Ashfaq from the FIFA-appointed PFF Normalization Committee had forced FIFA to suspend Pakistan.
It is worth mentioning here that Sardar Naveed Haider Khan, recently resigned as PFF Vice-President over differences. Syed Ashfaq Hussain Shah-led Pakistan Football Federation’s (PFF) Vice-President Sardar Naveed Haider Khan, had a key role in involving private sectors who invested their valuable money for holding some mega football events. Naveed, himself a great lover of football, said that the Afghanistan footballers and their families are our guests and they are being looked after accordingly.
Sardar Naveed Alam said, “I had resigned from all the posts of football but my association with football will continue and it is time to give job opportunities to new and fresh people.” He expressed his hope that soon the ban on PFF will be lifted. Sardar Naveed is also a member of the PFF Congress and PFF Executive Committee.
