Senate body wants early audit of PHF funds

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

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

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Though the PHF has already witnessed the change as Shahbaz Ahmed has been replaced by Asif Bajwa since report was submitted, the committee has advocated the need of pulling up the socks at all levels in the federation set-up to help the dying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

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

“There is a need to complete the audit on priority basis. Every stakeholder and hockey followers are eagerly looking forward to the audit report in wake of serious allegations of misappropriation of funds.”

The sub-committee recommended that if the forensic audit points out any misappropriation of funds, the matter should be referred to concerned authorities.

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 realise 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’s performance has never been consistent all these decades.

It stressed upon 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 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.” Senator Waleed Iqbal was out of country and was not available for comments on the report.