Alamgir Shaikh re-elected as PBSA President

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

Alamgir Anwar Shaikh, who had succeeded Ali Asghar Valika as the President of the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) a couple of years ago, was re-elected for another term of two years.

The elections of the PBSA were held during their Annual General Meeting held at the Karachi Club Annexe on November 27 and there were hardly any surprises in the composition of the office-bearers.

Alamgir Shaikh was re-elected as President while Abdul Wahid Qadir and Jawed H Karim also got another term as Vice Presidents and Munawwar Hussain Shaikh will continue as Honorary Secretary.

Amir Abbas Poonawala has been elected as the Honorary Treasurer while those having been elected as members of the Executive Committee are Mustafa A Aziz, Amin Bawany, Abdul Rashid Lehra, Nisar Ali Baghat, Shabbir Hussain Daruwala, Mohammad Hanif Memon and M. Yousuf Suleman.

In order to fulfill the formality, a representative of the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB), Mahkumuddin Mangrio, also attended the AGM to legitimize the elections of the PBSA.

There was no place in the Executive Committee, however, for Ali Asghar Valika, who had led the PBSA for about two decades before giving it up in controversial circumstances in 2008.

There was no mention of Asghar Valika in the handout issued by the PBSA concerning the AGM and the elections but he was very much there in the accompanying group photograph released on the occasion. By the look of things he will be there as a Patron of the Association.

The contribution of Asghar Valika in taking the cue sports to its present level has been monumental and his successor, Alamgir Shaikh, has had the sporting spirit to acknowledge it publicly.

The first tenure of Alamgir Shaikh wasn’t a magical one as he had inherited some major problems with the financial side being the obvious weak link. He has weathered the storm somehow but his skills at the top will be tested further in the coming years with a lot of challenges to be met.