PHF bosses likely to be removed after Eid

KARACHI: The federal government is preparing a charge sheet against Pakistan Hockey Federation whose officials have warned it of dire consequences in case of intervention in the body’s affairs.
Sources said that it has been confirmed that some major changes would be brought after the return of the PM Nawaz Sharif from Saudi Arabia.
The PM of the country is the patron in chief of PHF by its constitution and has the powers to appoint officials in PHF.
Sources said that various groups considered influential in the Punjab hockey were lobbying to dislodge the current PHF management.
A former Olympian said that between July 22 and 25, the picture would become clear and some major changes would be brought.
He said he expected all PHF officials to be suspended. He said the PM, before leaving the country, had asked former Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali to end national hockey crisis.
Jamali has served hockey for many years in various positions.
The PHF’s current management, sensing the intentions of the government, has stated that people more than seventy years old could not become president and those more than 65 years old could not become secretary, according to the PHF constitution.
Apparently this is to thwart some former Olympians and Jamali.
But the sources said these amendments to the PHF constitution made recently had no legal status. Nowhere in the world of hockey is there such a restriction, the sources claimed.
They said many things would become clear when the PM returned home and the report of the probe committee was presented to him.
It has been proposed that like the cricket board, a hockey board would be established at the federal level to run the affairs of hockey.
The sources further said that along with Jamali, Col Mudassir Asghar, Brig Khokhar, and a few Olympians would be given responsibilities in the new setup.
The current and the previous management of PHF have been accused of mismanagement, embezzlement of funds. They have been called incompetent as under their watch Pakistan failed to qualify for the World Cup 2014, could not play the Commonwealth Games and failed to reach the Olympics 2016.