Islamabad, Feb. 28 : Pakistan may be banned from participating in international sports events by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), after an amendment was made in the 1962 Sports Ordinance, empowering the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) to amend or form a model constitution for all the sports federations in the country.

The IOC may bar Pakistan if it concludes that the country's sports associations are controlled by the Government or the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB).

"We directly come under the IOC and it is the Olympic Committee that could dictate to us. All our efforts are focused to pursue the Olympic charter that has nothing to do with the government. If at any stage it is established that it is the government that is directly or indirectly running the sport federations in the country and these federations are not following the IOC charter, the international committee may bar us from talking part in any international tournament in future," The News quoted a senior official of a sports association, as saying.

He said that sports federations and Olympic associations work directly under the IOC, and are bound to follow its set of rules.

"Any attempt to make changes in federation's constitution that is against the international body charter would have serious implications," he added.

Another official objected to the government's decision to amend the Sports Ordinance, saying that the government should not poke its nose in the working of the sports federations.

"It is the Olympic and international federations' rules that are supposed to guide us, not the government. Nowhere in the world, a government tries to harm the IOC charter," he said.

He lamented that such controversial things keep on happening in the country, and is ultimately harming the country's image.

"Such strange things are happening only in Pakistan. I think someone who is pursuing his personal agenda is behind this move," he said. (ANI)