Change of guard in Pakistan hockey: Islahuddin newchief selector, Sardar named team manager

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has changed the national selection committee and team management for the third time in two years.

On Thursday it handed over the team management to former chief selector Hasan Sardar and gave selection powers to Islahuddin Siddiqui. Rehan Butt and Muhammad Saqlain have been named assistant coaches.

These decisions were taken at the meeting of PHF Congress and were announced by PHF president Brig (r) Khalid Sajjad Khokhar at a press briefing.In the beginning of the tenure of the current PHF leadership, Khawaja Junaid was appointed manager and Rashid Junior chief selector.

Following the disastrous performance in the World Hockey League Semi-Final, the team management and the selection committee were changed again as Farhat Khan took over as manager and Hasan Sardar became the chief selector.

After failures in Asia Cup and a four-nation tournament in Australia, the team management was shown the door once again. The PHF president said that they were given Rs330 million by the federal government in recent times. “We have been given Rs330 million and have got all the records with us.”

However, during the meeting no hard copies of any expenditure or audit were distributed among the members of the Congress. “No activity report was presented before the Congress members. Even the audit report was not given to Congress members,” one of the members said.

He quoted Khokhar as saying that the hard copy of audit would be presented to all the members within two weeks. The PHF president announced that scrutiny of all the PHF units would be conducted next month followed by elections.

“The PHF has never defaulted. We are not defaulters or owe money to any organization,” he added. Meanwhile, the Peshawar High Court in a decision on Thursday allowed the elected KP Hockey Association to attend the Congress meeting.

Zahir and 12 members of the KP association were allowed to attend the Congress meeting after the decision.Zahir demanded hard copies of all the expenditure and audit reports.“It is a constitutional obligation. This includes budget estimate for the next year,” he added.