Selectors, coaches unwilling to appear before PHF committee

KARACHI: The second phase of PHF’s Fact Finding Committee’s work will be held at the PHF Office, National Hockey Stadium, Lahore, on July 23, PHF has announced.
The Committee has invited National Selection Committee, the team management and the team doctor.
The committee will also talk to the senior sports journalists of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad to find the reasons behind the failure of Pakistan team to qualify for the Rio Olympics.
Some members of the selection committee said they had serious reservations about appearing before the committee as chairman selection committee Olympian Islahuddin and Ayaz Mehmood were seniors to the members of PHF-appointed fact-finding committee members Shahid Ali Khan, Mansoor Ahmed and Muhammad Ikhlaq.
Ayaz said that there was no need to constitute another committee when PM Nawaz Sharif, also the patron in chief of the PHF, had already formed an inquiry committee to ascertain the reasons behind Pakistan’s failure to qualify for the Rio Olympics.
He said that PHF’s committee had no status. “How is it possible for them to remain impartial as one of the member of the committee Shahid Ali Khan is himself a PHF official and the other two are their (PHF bosses) close associates,” he said.
Sources said that a few of the coaching staff of the national team also had reservations about appearing before the committee.
Meanwhile, the PHF has issued NOC to the following players for participation in the Malaysian Hockey League: Muhammad Imran, Muhammad Irfan, Muhammad Waqas Sharif, Abdul Haseem Khan, Imran Butt, Muhammad Umar Bhutta, Ali Shan, Waseem Ahmed, Shafqat Rasool, Muhammad Toseeq Arshad, Fareed Ahmed, Azfar Yaqoob, Ajaz Ahmed, Ammad Shakeel Butt and Rizwan Senior.