{"id":17597,"date":"2025-11-24T16:08:27","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T11:08:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakalerts.net\/english\/?p=17597"},"modified":"2025-11-24T16:08:27","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T11:08:27","slug":"pakistan-sports-board-lifts-the-ban-imposed-on-arshad-nadeems-coach-salman-butt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakalerts.net\/english\/?p=17597","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan Sports Board Lifts the Ban Imposed on Arshad Nadeem\u2019s Coach Salman Butt"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) has overturned a lifetime ban imposed on prominent athletics coach Salman Iqbal Butt, mentor of Olympic gold medalist Arshad Nadeem, restoring his professional status.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The ruling, issued by Senator Pervaiz Rashid in his capacity as an adjudicator for the PSB, declared the ban imposed by the Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) \u201cwithout lawful authority, unconstitutional, ultra vires, and void ab initio,\u201d meaning it was invalid from the outset.<\/p>\n

The AFP had imposed the ban on October 12, 2025, but Butt challenged it, arguing it was issued without jurisdiction, due process, or a legal basis.<\/p>\n

Following detailed proceedings, the adjudicator sided with Butt in a final order dated November 13, 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lifetime ban has no legal effect and is declared void,\u201d the order stated.<\/p>\n

It instructed the AFP to \u201cimmediately withdraw all adverse communications\u201d sent to international bodies such as World Athletics and Asian Athletics, which had damaged Butt\u2019s global standing.<\/p>\n

The federation is also restrained from issuing any future \u201cdefamatory or prejudicial communications\u201d against him.<\/p>\n

The adjudicator cited multiple legal and procedural lapses in the AFP\u2019s actions. No formal charge sheet was issued to Butt, no inquiry report was provided, and he was denied a meaningful right to a hearing or defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cA penalty imposed in violation of due process is void ab initio,\u201d the order read, citing violations of Articles 4, 10-A, and 25 of the Constitution of Pakistan. It also noted that a lifetime ban was \u201cultra vires, excessive, and unsupported by any constitutional authority\u201d under AFP rules.<\/p>\n

The case also involved a dispute over the Punjab Athletics Association elections, which the AFP had declared null and void.<\/p>\n

The adjudicator ruled that the AFP had no jurisdiction over the matter, as the PAA is a provincial body whose elections are supervised by the Punjab Sports Board and the Punjab Olympic Association.<\/p>\n

Nominated officials observed the elections, and no objections were raised at the time.<\/p>\n

The ruling highlighted the ban\u2019s negative impact on Pakistan\u2019s elite athletics program. Butt has coached Arshad Nadeem for years, including during his historic performance at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.<\/p>\n

The adjudicator noted that the AFP\u2019s actions \u201cdisrupted Pakistan\u2019s high-performance athletes\u2019 preparations, created uncertainty for a leading Olympic athlete, damaged national medal prospects, and risked reputational harm internationally.\u201d<\/p>\n

The record included a written endorsement from Nadeem himself supporting Butt and opposing the ban.<\/p>\n

The PSB\u2019s legal advisor, Saif ur Rehman Rao, assisted during the proceedings, while the AFP was represented by its president, Brig. (R) Wajahat Hussain, and advocate Usman Akram.<\/p>\n

The adjudicator overruled the AFP\u2019s objection regarding the petition\u2019s maintainability, affirming his full jurisdiction under the PSB Constitution.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) has overturned a lifetime ban imposed on prominent athletics coach Salman Iqbal Butt, mentor of Olympic gold medalist Arshad Nadeem, restoring his professional status. The ruling, issued by Senator Pervaiz Rashid in his capacity as an adjudicator for the PSB, declared the ban imposed by the Athletics Federation of Pakistan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17598,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"googlesitekit_rrm_CAowgLK2DA:productID":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,46,38],"tags":[2043,9486,4633,9485,9484,9487],"class_list":["post-17597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-important-news","category-latest","category-sports","tag-arshad-nadeem","tag-athletics-federation","tag-ban-lifted","tag-pakistan-sports-board","tag-salman-butt","tag-sports-ruling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakalerts.net\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakalerts.net\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakalerts.net\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakalerts.net\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakalerts.net\/english\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17597"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pakalerts.net\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17599,"href":"https:\/\/pakalerts.net\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17597\/revisions\/17599"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakalerts.net\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakalerts.net\/english\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakalerts.net\/english\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakalerts.net\/english\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}