Senate body points out loopholes in PHF audit

ISLAMABAD: The Senate sub-committee has pointed out at administrative loopholes, early completion of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) forensic audit and referring the matter to concern authorities if auditors find any misappropriation of funds in their report submitted with the Senate Secretariat.

The News has exclusively learnt from well placed sources that the sub-committee headed by Senator Waleed Iqbal (convener) and included Senator Seemee Ezdi and Lt Gen (rtd) Salauddin Tirmizi has handed over its finding on the pathetic plight of Pakistan hockey in the country to Senate Secretariat.

The Senate sub-committee formed by the Senate Standing Committee on Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) has pointed out at administrative mess up at the PHF offices as one of the reasons of no apparent improvement in the plight of the game. The report submitted a few days back highlighted the poor working of the PHF and demanded administrative adjustments to plug the loopholes.

Though the PHF has already witnessed the change as Shahbaz Ahmad has been replaced by Asif Bajwa since report was submitted, the committee has advocated the need of pulling up the socks at all levels in the federation set up to help the dying national sports get on to its feet.

The Committee called on the Auditor General of Pakistan not to waste time and to complete the forensic audit of the PHF at priority basis.

“There is a need to complete the forensic audit of the federation at the priority basis. Every stakeholder and hockey followers are eagerly looking forward to the forensic audit report in wake of serious allegations of misappropriation of funds in the PHF. The earlier, the auditors would complete their job, the better it would be for the game.” The sub-committee recommended that if forensic audit points out any misappropriation of funds, matter should be referred to concern authorities.

“In case of any misappropriation in funds, the matter should be referred to the concern authorities,” the committee maintained. The report also mentioned that advent of artificial turf and changes in international hockey playing rules making the game more physical oriented with technique, flexibility and wrist work started becoming the second priority. Though it took time for every top nation to realize the importance of these changes, Pakistan hockey struggled to come to the terms with these changes. Barring a few eras of brilliance in between, Pakistan performance has never been consistent all these decades.

The committee stressed the need to focus on domestic hockey and working at grassroots level. “Hardly any efforts were made to transfer the new requirements of international hockey at domestic level. Either the effort was too weak or the capability was never there to shift the modern requirements towards local youth and clubs.”

It has also been pointed out that the PHF has been lucky enough to get government support and backing all these years. “Still no real effort was made to streamline the system enabling the country stay at par with other leading hockey playing nations.”The convener Senator Waleed Iqbal was out of country and was not available for comments on the report he has submitted on poor state of hockey affairs in the country.