Zahir seeks PM’s help to get justice for KP hockey

ISLAMABAD: Zahir Shah, secretary Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Hockey Association, has appealed to Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to help get justice for the provincial association as the genuinely elected body has not been invited to attend the meeting of PHF Congress scheduled for today (Thursday) in Islamabad.

In a hurriedly called press conference at a local hotel in Islamabad Wednesday, Zahir Shah, who was also accompanied by the elected members of the PHF Congress from KP, said his only crime was that he highlighted the PHF’s working including the misappropriation of funds.

“These members of the PHF Congress from KP are the same who had given vote of confidence to Brig (r) Khalid Sajjad Khokhar two years back. These are the elected members of all the concerned districts in KP. The PHF has ignored them altogether.”

Zahir, who was also accompanied by the PHF senior vice president Saeed Khan, said there was no parallel hockey association in KP.“We moved Peshawar High Court only against the misappropriation of funds and there is no case of parallel body pending in KP. We are the elected body having the support of 13 out of fourteen provincial districts,” he said.

Zahir added that he had support of other units as well. “We have got all the bank statements with us and these are available for media. Over Rs240 millions were drawn from PHF kitty. There is a clear constitutional clause which says that all amounts should be paid through crossed cheques. The PHF has no justification for drawing such huge amount of money from the account.”

He said that Pakistan Hockey Federation means Pakistan’s federation and KP is part and parcel of this country. “No Congress meeting has been convened during the last two years. Now when the Congress meeting is being convened we are not the part of it.”

Four months back when Khokhar was nursing his illness, a whopping amount of Rs100 million was drawn from the PHF kitty. “PHF senior vice president Saeed Khan, whose signatures are mandatory in the absence of PHF president, has no knowledge of this withdrawal as he was supposed to see the finances in president’s absence.”“PHF secretary Shahbaz Ahmed Senior was playing dirty politics instead of concentrating on the improvement of hockey team’s standard.