ATTOCK, Oct 29: Liaquat Ali Khan (Shaheed) Hockey Stadium, which is also a major landmark of Attock city, has been neglected for the last 24 years.

District Hockey Association (DHA) claims that the neglect is due to political interference.

The DHA president, Rana Afsar Ali Khan advocate, and secretary general, Rana Naseeb Ali, while talking to newsman, said funds were allocated for the construction of the stadium in 1988.

But after a portion of the stadium was constructed, work on it stopped on the pretext that there was shortage of funds. Since then the project remains incomplete. However, recently the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) MPA, Malik Shahan, allocated funds for the construction of two rooms for dress changing of players, the DHA office-bearers said.

But unfortunately, once again work stopped, again due to political interference.

The ground is being used for holding public meetings of political parties and other non-sporting activities, which damaged the facilities, the DHA officials claimed.

They added that there were five officials of the sports department responsible for maintenance of the ground but they did not perform their duties due to lack of supervision.

Recently the Punjab government had appointed a district sports officer (DSO), a person with political connections, but he was sent back on the plea that he was not interested in the post, the officials said.  Another complaint of the DHA is that the district sports department had been receiving rent of Rs130,000 monthly for 15 shops, around the stadium, but they did not know where the amount was being spent, as the sports department is reluctant to disclose the details.

Moreover, Town Municipal Administration (TMA) allocated funds – over Rs10 million – to the district sports department in their approved annual budget but DHA was not provided with any funds.

Former nazim union council Attock-II Rana Shaukat Ali Khan said he was a ‘hockey lover,’ and remembered the golden era when hockey was more keenly watched than cricket. According to him, 19 tournaments were organised at the stadium from 1982 to 2001. Mr Khan remembered that the stadium used to be packed with spectators.

But now it’s sad to see the deteriorating condition of the stadium due to lack of interest of the sports department and other government functionaries.

Liaquat Khan, a former captain National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) hockey team, said that his heart wept when he saw the condition of the stadium.

Being a former NBP team captain, he had participated in many tournaments in the stadium.

When contacted, the acting district sports officer, Sheikh Asif, explained that he extended help to the DHA in selecting the location for the construction of rooms, after the sanctioning of funds but did not know why the project was not completed.

Explaining the vacant post of district sports officer, he said it was not only in Attock but a similar situation existed in 18 districts of Punjab.

Mr Asif also claimed that he had always extended cooperation to DHA to promoted hockey.