Aisam-ul-Haq was elected president of the Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) on Saturday.
He beat his opponent, Major General (retd) Asghar Nawaz 8-7, in the election at the PTF headquarters in Islamabad.
Aisam becomes the first active tennis player to hold the presidency of the federation. He has been appointed for a period of four years and will replace Salim Saifullah Khan in the role.
Lt. Col (retd) Ziauddin Tufail was elected secretary, while Arif Qureshi became treasurer.
'Aisam as PTF President could lead to problems'
Aisam as President of PTF will prove to be a case of conflict of interest, according to ex-Davis Cup captain, coach and former national champion Hameed-ul-Haq
“It seems nice that a tennis player could bring about a change in Pakistan’s tennis, but in Aisam’s case it may prove far from such an assumption,” said Hameed while talking to The News last month.
He added that Aisam has ACE academy to look after, therefore, fulfilling the duties of president of the tennis federation would be problematic.
“I am afraid that all the budget, resources and energy of PTF will possibly be diverted to his ACE academy,” he said.
He said that Aisam always took an appearance fee of $3000 in each Davis Cup tie he participated along with business class tickets in case a match was held abroad.
He added, the PTF management had to spend almost half of its budget on Aisam every time.
“If under some circumstances he is elected the President, he will be presenting a budget to fill his own pockets in terms of appearance fee which will prove to be a big joke,” Hameed concluded.