The National Sports Council (NSC) has suspended Ishtiaq Mubarak, the athletics coach for the national junior athletes, following Ishtiaq's pleading guilty to drug possession charges at the Langkawi Magistrate's Court Wednesday.

NSC director-general Datuk Seri Zolkples Embong said NSC would be issuing a suspension letter to the former 110m hurdler to ensure the image of national sports is not tarnished by drug related issues.

"I was shocked to hear the news and and saddened because he is a big name on the local sports scene," he said when met by reporters at his office here Thursday.

Ishtiaq whose full name is Ishtiaq Ahmad Mubarak Ahmad, 64, a was big sporting star in his heyday in the 1960s and 1970s and had won a bronze medal at the 1966 Asian Games.

He had pleaded guilty to possession of 37.9 grammes and 5.53 grammes of canabis respectively at Akademi Pelayaran Malaysia, Jalan Padang Mat Sirat, Kuah, Langkawi, at around 1am on Sunday.

The court set Feb 17 for re-mention of the case pending the chemist's report.