Hockey team’s meeting with Nawaz Sharif still uncertain

KARACHI: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is going to meet Misbah-ul-Haq-led cricket squad before it leaves for the World Cup, but the meeting of the hockey team with the PM has been postponed thrice and the officials have not given exact schedule of the meeting, hockey players said.
They said it was sheer discrimination that the game which brought three Olympic gold medals and four World Cups was being ignored constantly.
PHF officials, members of the team and the management have all pinned their hopes on the meeting with the PM, which is stated to be scheduled for February 4. They hope that the meeting will resolve their financial issues as the team has shown impressive performance in the Asian Games and the Champions Trophy.
The Green-shirts won back-to-back silver medals within three months in 2014, but their meeting with the PM, who happens to be the patron in chief of the PHF, has not yet taken place. No reason has been given for the postponement.
The players and the management have been waiting for their salaries for the past one and a half years and cash awards, which became due after the recent silver medal wins.
When the meeting was postponed for the last time, it was announced that the meeting would be held on February 4.
But the PHF sources said February 4 was not confirmed as the meeting date as there had been no written communication from the PM Secretariat.
Sources in the ministry of IPC said they were hopeful that this time the meeting would be held on its schedule and PM would also approve financial aid for PHF. This may come in installments with strict vigilance from higher authorities, a well-placed source said.
The source confirmed that the federal government would release the prize money and other cash incentives for the Green-shirts and their management.
The opponents of the current PHF bosses say there has been a lot of mismanagement, as around Rs1.4 billion was given to PHF during previous seven years. They ask why the condition of Pakistan hockey is so bad, players are deprived of their basic salaries, while PHF top officials keep getting their salaries and other perks.