FIH asks govt about status of breakaway PHF

ISLAMABAD: The International Hockey Federation (FIH) has approached the government of Pakistan (Ministry for Inter-Provincial Coordination) and Pakistan Olympics Association (POA) to ascertain constitutional status of the breakaway PHF in the country.

The FIH has set April 25 deadline to breakaway federation to sort out differences following which recommendations from the government and POA will be sought. The prime minister, who is also patron-in-chief of the PHF, has already empowered Advisor on Youth Affairs Rana Mashhood to settle the conflict during a meeting scheduled for April 25.

The FIH’s letter to the government and all other concerned parties, said: “It is very important that the athletes of Pakistan are able to participate in the upcoming tournaments (Sultan Azlan Shah Cup and Nations Cup) and this is the utmost priority of the FIH. In order for us to facilitate this, we strongly request that any issues within the administration of the PHF are dealt with internally and quickly. A clear communication must then be sent to the FIH to clarify the situation and who are the correct representatives of the PHF to whom FIH and Malaysian Hockey Federation should be communicating regarding the organisation of these events.

“We request that the agreed outcome and details of the official representatives be clearly communicated to us, FIH, by the end of the day. Failure to reach agreement between the two parties by this time will mean we will have no choice but to write to the Pakistan government and/or the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA), requesting their intervention and resolution. For clarity, allowing one of these organizations to send a team to these tournaments will not necessarily lead to automatic recognition of this group as the official Pakistan Hockey Federation,” the same has been sent to all the parties including two PHFs, breakaway federation, the POA and Ministry.