Kick PHF chiefs out now, former greats demand

KARACHI: Former Olympians slammed the PHF chiefs on Friday for the failure of Pakistan to qualify for the Rio Olympics 2016 and demanded that they resign.
They said it was a day of mourning as the national team had failed to qualify for Olympics.
Former Olympic captain Manzoor Junior said the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, patron in chief of PHF, ought to use his discretionary power and sack all officials and bring in a new management, giving them task for World Cup 2018 and Olympics 2020.
Manzoor, the last gold medal winning captain — Los Angeles, 1984 — said that in the tenure of Qasim Zia and Asif Bajwa, Pakistan failed to reach World Cup 2014 and now in the leadership of Akhtar Rasool and Rana Mujahid Pakistan had failed to qualify for the Olympics 2016.
He said both these pairs of officials destroyed the national game and those who wanted to develop the game were not allowed to work.
Manzoor said it was surprising that Akhtar, Rana and Bajwa were present in Belgium although PHF was facing “huge financial crisis” and its three coaches were excluded from the touring party.
He said that there was no option but to remove the PHF’s top hierarchy with immediate effect. He demanded that the audit committee report be made public.
Samiullah, another great Olympian, held PHF officials responsible for “all disasters. It was written on the wall that Pakistan hockey was sinking. Things like these were inevitable because of the way Akhtar and Rana have been running the affairs of hockey. We have been crying for last couple of years,” he said.
“We had been loudly saying for a long time that PHF was making a mockery of the national game. We warned the federal government when Pakistan failed to reach the World Cup 2014, but it did not take any action and gave them maximum time. But the PHF bosses kept up their wrongdoings and misuse of funds, he said.
Samiullah, a star forward of his time, said that his group demanded that PHF president, secretary, chairman selection committee and chief coach voluntarily resign and PM Nawaz Sharif appoint people with good reputation to run the affairs.
Samiullah said Pakistan are to face Junior World Cup next year and PHF was not ready to compete in that event, which was the main route to make a strong senior string.
Meanwhile, after Pakistan’s loss to Ireland, there were unconfirmed reports that PHF officials were going to be removed an ad hoc committee was to be set up.
Olympians Qamar Zia and Saleem Nazim also demanded that all PHF officials be “kicked out and interrogated” about Rs1 billion that was given to PHF for the development of hockey.