PHF crisis deepens further

KARACHI: Former greats of hockey have applauded the government’s decision not to release funds to PHF and demanded that the federation be dissolved.
Talking to ‘The News’, they said when the government itself had realised that funds were not used properly and massive corruption had been done in the past seven years, it must take action and punish the wrongdoers.
Two leading federal ministers have said that first audit would be conducted of the funds previously given to PHF and only after that new funds would be made available.
Former Olympian Qamar Zia, a sharp critic of PHF’s policies, said that his group had been saying the same thing for years. Public’s wealth was misused for personal interests while players remained without their basic salaries, he said.
Olympian Naveed Alam said that their group would soon gather in Lahore and express their opinion about the state of hockey affairs in the country.
Naveed said that now PHF wanted to dismantle the winning combination which was established due to the hard work of chief coach Shahnaz Sheikh and his team.
He said the PHF bosses had appointed Tahir Zaman who had failed to achieve anything in the past.
PHF president Akhtar Rasool said a few days ago that the training camp of the national hockey team would be resumed from April 12, but sources said it could not be restarted before April 22 due to financial crisis.
Olympian Salim Nazim said that PHF’s constituting a four-member committee to investigate misuse of funds was a joke. “How is it possible that investigation is carried out while those accused of wrongdoings are in the committee,” he said.
He said Tahir Zaman had achieved nothing as coach in the past despite being given the role for more than 20 tournaments. But he has been attached with Shahnaz now, he said.
He said the government should ask the PHF bosses for what services Qasim Zia and Asif Bajwah had been promoted to FIH and AHF.
He said both had completely failed to deliver while they were leading the PHF. Owing to their policies, Pakistan failed to qualify for the Hockey World Cup, he said.