PHF evaluation body to be all-powerful: PSB

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) here Monday issued a notification regarding formation of the four-member committee to evaluate the performance (‘The News’ broke the story in Monday edition) of Pakistan hockey on and off the field in special context with the current regime.

The notification was issued under the special instructions of the prime minister, who is also the patron-in-chief of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF). The committee will be headed by PSB director general and will include two former World Cup winning captains Akhtar Rasool and Islah-ud-Din Siddiqui and two Olympians Shahnaz Sheikh and Khawaja Junaid.

Interestingly, the PHF on January 30 imposed a life ban on Khawaja Junaid, three days after he was included in the evaluation committee approved by the patron. The Prime Minister's office directed the PSB to issue notification to constitute the committee bearing the names approved by the authority on January 26.

The PSB has already de-notified the PHF a few months back, hence any decision by any committee formed by the PHF has no bearing on the decisions of ministry as well as PSB. The committee has been given 60 days to evaluate performances of Pakistan hockey at domestic and international and also judge whether the federation has worked in accordance with the constitution approved in 2015.

The mandate of the committee will be as follows: The committee will evaluate the performance of PHF as per PHF constitution 2015, as well as role and responsibilities given in the PSB constitution; the committee will prepare its report on the performance of the national hockey team for the period from August, 2015 to May, 2022; the committee will submit its report within 60 days after issuance of this notification.

‘The News’ has learnt that the committee will be all-powerful and will have the authority to ask for any document or information from the de-notified federation’s officials and can use the PHF premises to conduct the evaluation or it can ask any PHF official to appear before the committee.

The evaluation will not only be confined to the teams’ performance or domestic/grassroots progress, it will also have a broader role. “The committee that is being constituted under the direct orders of the prime minister will have the authority to go through the details as to whether the finances meant for the growth of hockey were spent on game’s promotion and whether the PHF officials have successfully handled the international and local commitments,” an official said.

The committee is expected to meet in Islamabad within next ten days to go through the ToRs before analyzing the performance at all fronts. The patron-in-chief has also directed the ministry to conduct a special audit of the PHF from August 2015 to May 2022 including reports that a parallel unaccounted Bank account (hidden) was also being run by the federation officials.

The Ministry for Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) has already written a letter to the concerned authorities to conduct the audit at the earliest. “The reference to the FIA will only be forwarded if the special audit finds any misappropriation in the funds that were doled out to the federation during 2015-2022.”