NA committee questions Bajwa’s appointment

KARACHI/ISLAMABAD: The Standing Committee of the National Assembly on Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) on Friday questioned the appointment of Asif Bajwa as PHF secretary and directed president Brig (rtd) Khalid Khokhar to provide complete details of his appointment along with a copy of the PHF constitution at the next meeting.

The meeting of the committee was held at Pakistan Sports Board, Islamabad, with MNA Agha Hassan Baloch in the chair. The committee expressed concern over the poor performance of PHF and asked its high officials questions about the continuous poor performance of Pakistan team.

The panel noted that the performance of Pakistan had declined because of lack of commitment and mismanagement of the PHF. It directed the PHF to provide complete details of Pakistan hockey along with audit reports of last five years.

PHF president Brig (rtd) Khalid Khokhar and secretary Asif Bajwa briefed the committee about the condition of the national game. They said that the Auditor General Pakistan’s staff was conducting the audit of PHF funds.

PHF president said that when Shahbaz Ahmed resigned as secretary, he directed him to continue the work for time being and later accepted his resignation. He appointed Bajwa as the new secretary and the 21-member PHF executive board approved his appointment. His name would be presented in PHF congress meeting for approval, he added.

He said that the federal government had provided Rs310 million in three years to PHF, but since 2017, it had not provided any amount to PHF. He said he sent the national team to participate in international events, including World Cup, through his own resources.

Committee chairman Agha Hasan Baloch said the committee wanted to help the game of hockey in true sense. “We want to know what happened in the past and what we can do to improve the situation,” he added.

“We need all details of earning and spending, including forensic audit findings. We want to make effort to reach the truth,” the chairman said.

Former hockey great Manzoor Junior thanked Brig (rtd) Khokhar for accepting Shahbaz’s resignation. “ I am thankful to you for that but you took too long to remove Shahbaz. He has already done big damage to hockey,” he said.

Former Olympians Naveed Alam and Khalid Bashir were also present in the meeting. The meeting was attended by MNAs Gul Dad Khan, Rasheed Ahmad Khan, Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali Bhinder, Gul Zafar Khan, Iqbal Muhammad Ali, Rubina Jamil, Munawara Bibi, Muhammad Hashim, Ali Zahid, Rana Mubashar Iqbal, Afzaal Khokhar, Zulfiqar Ali Behan, Shahida Rehmani, Nasiba Channa, , and the secretary of IPC ministry. Talking to media later, Baloch said that he wanted to help hockey after getting all the details of recent earnings and expenditures. “The game of hockey cannot flourish without financial support. What I and my other colleagues want is to finalise recommendations for future assistance. Hockey being our national sport will be on top of our agenda,” he said.

Speaking on the occasion, Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Dr Fahmida Mirza asked provinces to develop sports. “It is now the responsibility of the provinces to put in their best to promote sports,” she said.