Former hockey captains, Olympians call for change in PHF

LAHORE (APP): A number of former Pakistan hockey captains, former Olympians and international players here Monday called for immediate change in the present setup of Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) to lift the national sport out of gloom.

In what turned-out-to-be country hockey history’s first-ever assembling of that large number of stalwarts of the game at one platform appeared a collective effort to safeguard the future of the game in which Pakistan has lost its repute and supremacy as a top-notch hockey country.

Four most respected former hockey captains, Dr Tariq Aziz, Manzoor Junior, Hanif Khan and Khawaja Mohammad Junaid, former great Olympains, including former secretary, PHF Col (retd) Mudassar Asghar, Rao Salim Nazim, Naveed Alam, Khalid Bashir, Muhammad Saqlain and former international player Haider Rasool and other players joined by President Sindh Hockey Association Dr Junaid Ali Shah and a large number of hockey-lovers participated in a ‘hockey forum’ at Lahore Press Club and requested Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is the patron-in-chief of the PHF, to remove the present officials in the larger interest of the game.

Speaking on the occasion, they were of the unanimous view that deep-rooted corruption, non-professional approach, unconstitutional acts and wrong-doings and polices of the incumbent PHF regime, led by Khalid Sajjad Khokhar and Shhabaz Senior as its president and secretary, respectively, have pushed the game into darkness.

They alleged that Rs 100 million grant, which was given time to time to the PHF by the government in the recent years, was misappropriated and was spent on non-hockey activities by the PHF office-bearers and the game was badly damaged and now its future hangs in the balance.

“Pakistan hockey team, which once was force to reckon with at the highest level of the game by possessing all the major hockey titles, is now a place shadow of its glittering past which is evident from its low world’s number 14 ranking,” they said.

They said that the PHF funds were spent on joy-rides and on the pretext of holding of hockey camps which failed to serve any purpose as no junior or U16, U18, U20 teams were formed so much so no sincere efforts were made to groom the national senior team, which showed dismal performance in all the international events it participated in recent years.

They called for conducting a special audit in the PHF to determine the facts how the funds were spent and despite receiving handsome grant in recent years why the game had a nose dive trend.

“The prime minister himself is a sportsman and we appeal to him to look into the present hockey crisis and to appoint right people for the right job,” they said in a joint resolution at the forum. The former captains, Olympians and internationals said those who destroyed the national game be held responsible and bring to justice. At the end of the forum a large number of hockey children holding placards and banners staged a peaceful assembly in the premises of the Lahore Press club.