18 players, two officials get appointment letters

Hockey gets a boost

KARACHI: Eighteen more national- level hockey players and two officials have been given jobs by Fuji Foundation, The News has learnt.

The players and the officials received their appointment letters on Monday.

With this, the number of players who have got jobs due to efforts of PHF during the last one year has crossed 70.

Informed sources said that most of the players who have been given jobs have either been among the reserves of Pakistan’s national team or in Pakistan Whites.

PHF termed the appointment of players on jobs in various departments one of its biggest achievement. PHF officials say that this should convince people that hockey is still a career option in this country.

“Now we can say that at least those who have Pakistan’s colour have been provided jobs by PHF,” PHF president Khalid Khokhar told ‘The News’.

He said that all players of senior and junior sides and Pakistan Whites have been appointed by various organisations during the last one year.

Khokhar applauded the role of Fauji Foundation and said it played an important role in the revival of the national game.

He said that hockey was getting strength and becoming popular once again at the national level due to hectic efforts of PHF. “A number of departmental hockey teams have been revived and dozens of hockey players have got jobs,” said PHF president.

There has been no precedent of so many players getting jobs in a year in the country.

Khokhar said that since he had taken charge as president, he had focused on making people realise that there was scope in national hockey as far as job security was concerned.

“Now the issue of unemployment of the national-level players, both senior and junior, has been resolved,” he said.

He said people not say now that there are no jobs for hockey players in the country.

The PHF president said that ZTBL had hired the services of those players who had been in senior or junior team or attended their training camp.

He said that PHF is negotiating with Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited and OGDCL to develop their hockey teams to participate in the domestic events. Soon the hockey fraternity would hear good news in this regard, he added.

He was optimistic that PHF would be able to provide jobs to at least 100 players and officials by 2018 as talks with some other departments are going on.

He mentioned that PHF was also working to ensure that those players who came up during the next couple of years got jobs.

“But they must show their talent and skill in domestic events and attend Pakistan’s training camp of any outfit,” he said.