KARACHI: Pakistan lost an influential but a controversial boxing personality on Saturday when former president of the International Boxing Association (AIBA) Anwar Chowdhry passed away.
The country witnessed a brilliant boxing era under Chowdhry by winning the solitary Olympic medal at 1988 Seoul Games when middleweight Hussain Shah won the bronze. Pakistan also grabbed other laurels during his tenure as Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF) chief, winning Asian Games, Asian championship and South Asian Federation Games (now South Asian Games) and assorted titles.
An engineer by profession and a professor at NED University, Chowdhry later developed an affection for boxing and became the president of the national federation to rule the sport’s affairs with an iron hand for no less than 33 years.
The 87-year-old Pakistani first entered into AIBA domain in 1966 as vice-president before being elected secretary-general in 1974, and later elected the president of the international body in 1986.
He always faced a tough time at the home front owing to his pick-and-choose policies and whimsical decisions which led to friction between him and many involved in boxing at national and grassroots levels.
Chowdhry, who was accused of running Pakistan boxing matters single-handedly, favouring few and sidelining many, did not have many friends in sports controlling bodies at home. He maintained bitter relations with Pakistan Sports Board and Pakistan Olympic Association which he usually referred to as ‘post office.’
Likewise, he was also the loggerheads with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which at one stage raised objections over his much-hyped ‘Chowdhry Scoring System’ and selection of judges and referees. Later, IOC stopped its grants to AIBA until all the requirements for fair judging and refereeing were fulfilled.
It was not only totalitarian rule at home, but Chowdhry ran the international boxing affairs with equal authority. From invitational tournaments and the Olympic qualifying rounds organised at home to World championships abroad, Chowdhry was accused of altering results to favour the Pakistani boxers.
His downfall eventually came when he was dethroned as the international boxing king in 2006 when he lost to Chinese Taipei’s Ching-Kuo Wu who won by securing 83 votes against Chowdhry’s 79. Chowdhry had lost the final battle but not before a series of allegations of corruption.
It was revealed that Chowdhry withdrew $350,000 in March 2006 from the joint account of his daughter Sonia Shakeel from Zurich-based UBS Bank to Union Bank in Karachi. AIBA executive committee member Rudel Obreja immediately took notice and questioned him to disclose the source of huge amount of money in his Swiss bank account.
While Obreja also accused Chowdhry and his son-in-law Shakeel Durrani of receiving kickbacks from a boxing gear manufacturing company, an audit report in 2006 revealed that the PBF had been operating a bank account without having any record of transactions in account books.
Chowdhry was also in limelight when he refused to submit original invoices for accounts audit to Swiss auditing company Fiduciaire Tucker and flatly refused to submit the supporting documents for four years despite being asked by his secretary Caner Doganeli and auditing firm repeatedly.
Soon after losing the election, Chowdhry, who ruled boxing’s international ruling body for 20 years, was also banned for life on the charges of embezzlement during his tenure. It also had a negative impact on Chowdhry as PBF chief and was replaced by Doda Khan in 2008.
But it was not only Chowdhry who was frustrated after his downfall. Pakistan boxing also slumped to an unprecedented abyss with pathetic performances at all the international events. While Pakistan squad returned empty-handed from 2006 Asian Games in Doha, not a single pugilist qualified for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, a first in the history of the Pakistan boxing.
Although Chowdhry was a controversial boxing figure, many believe that it was because of his manipulations during his tenure with AIBA that Pakistan is now facing a decline in boxing, Pakistan boxing now lacks a personality of his stature and influence.
Chowdhry left behind three daughters and grandchildren. His funeral will be held on Monday after the arrival of his daughter Sonia and her family from the US.
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