PHF officials under immense pressure

KARACHI: The top officials of PHF have come under immense pressure since they have sensed that the inquiry committee set up by the government has reported about their mismanagement of hockey affairs, sources told ‘The News’.
The probe committee’s findings have not been made public and the PM is yet to take any action. The committee has submitted its report to IPC ministry, which will forward it to the PM.
KHA secretary Farooq Khan has demanded that the chief of army staff take over the PHF. The sources said this demand was meant to pre-empt any action by the federal government against the current chiefs of PHF.
They said the probe committee’s report was totally against PHF heads and it had held PHF responsible for the failure of the national team to qualify for the Olympics.
PHF officials have recently said that they were elected officials and came into power through a democratic process. But their opponents say that more than seventy percent clubs, districts, and divisions were not part of that process and that it was a fake election.
Olympian Naveed Alam said that from civil courts to high courts, these fake elections had been challenged. “The PHF did not conduct election; they did selection to grab the top slots in the hockey federation and usurp funds,” he alleged.
He asked who the contenders were against PHF president Akhtar Rasool and secretary Rana Mujahid in the election. “They themselves held the election, themselves were contenders and then selected themselves. This is what they call election,” he said.
He alleged that these people had made illegal amendments to the PHF constitution.
He said that PHF was using blackmailing tactics to save their skin but nobody would come to help them as they have been exposed.
Naveed was of the view that International Hockey Federation would not object to the government’s action against these people as they did not do when Asif Bajwa was made secretary on the basis of a letter of a federal minster.
Hockey organisers said PHF bosses did nothing when Pakistan team members were training for the Olympics qualifying rounds in Islamabad where eight to ten players got injured due to the bad condition of the turf. They could not go to Belgium early enough to play some practice matches, they said.
Three coaches could not go along with the team but two current and one former PHF officials went to Belgium and got daily allowance in dollars, said the organisers.