The Lahore High Court (LHC) accepted the petition of four Pakistani golf players and declared their disqualification for two years from participating from all competitive tournaments as illegal. The allegation against Murad Ahmad Khan, Mir Maaz Mahmood, Zulfiqar Rana and Zahid Ahmad participated in the World Amateur Inter-Team Championship held in Malaysia.
But on the complaint of Indian players it was disclosed that all four deceived the organisers by misstating their handicaps. As the matter when flashed in the newspapers, the Pakistan Golf Federation initiated disciplinary action against the petitioners and imposed ban for two years from May 12, 2010 to May 12, 2012. The federation also recommended that the petitioners should not be allowed to hold any office in any gold association or federation in future and directed their parent club Lahore Gymkhana to initiate against the petitioners.
The court while accepting the petition declared federation order as illegal. The court held, 'However, if the act of the petitioners brought bad name to the country, the parent club, may take necessary action against them in accordance with their rules'. The court held that the Pakistan Golf Federation could not initiate action against the petitioners, as they were not members of the federation. The court also decided that the federation only regulates the affairs of gold organisations and associations and not the individual golf players.
The court remarked, 'Every citizen of this country is supposed to be treated in accordance with law and any action by any public functionary against any citizen must be backed by any law or rule.' The court also held that the petitioners participated in the tournament in their private capacity and they were disqualified from the tournament but the federation had no vested interest with any lawful authority to pass impugned order against the petitioners.