LAHORE, Sept 11: Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) secretary Asif Bajwa, in a surprise move on Wednesday, resigned from his post while federation’s president Qasim Zia and head coach Akhtar Rasool preferred to hold on to their posts despite their poor performance at the office during the past five years.

Bajwa tendered his resignation at the PHF Executive Board meeting here on Wednesday which was held under the chairmanship of Qasim Zia. The PHF president accepted the secretary’s resignation and immediately announced Rana Mujahid as his replacement till the completion of the elections process of the federation on Nov 25.

Later in the afternoon, Bajwa told media that during his five-year tenure he tried his best to bring back the lost glory of national hockey.

However, Bajwa neither elaborated upon the reasons behind his decision to resign nor did he mention the series of setbacks and failures during his tenure which include the Pakistan team’s miserable showing in the 2010 World Cup where they finished 12th out of 12 teams and their ordinary faring in the London 2012 Games where they ended up a poor seventh.

Pakistan also squandered the opportunity of qualifying for the World Cup in the World Hockey League in Malaysia where they again ended up at 7th spot. And the last straw was the team’s failure qualify for the World Cup 2014 when they fell short of lifting the Asia Cup in Ipoh, Malaysia recently.

“In my tenure, the PHF officials won many important posts both in the Asian Hockey Federation and International Hockey Federation,” said Bajwa. “I also tried my best to provide maximum facilities to the players and the management. We increased the daily allowances of the players besides introducing central contracts for them.”

He also advised the senior Olympians, who remained Bajwa’s critics from day one during his term as PHF secretary, that now when he is not there anymore they should come forward to help the new secretary with their valuable suggestions.

He said during his tenure Pakistan won the Asian Games in 2010 after a long period of two decades and it also claimed bronze medal in the Champions Trophy after a gap of almost 10 years. “We also won the Asian Champions Trophy,” he remarked.

Bajwa, however, preferred not to take questions from the media and soon left the scene after handing over the charge to his successor Rana Mujahid.

Rana said Bajwa’s resignation had been accepted by the president and under article 13.7 of the PHF constitution, the Executive Board had unanimously elected him (Rana) as the new secretary general till the fresh elections for the next term of 2014-18.

Rana further disclosed that the house has also formed a four-member committee which would examine the reasons of Pakistan’s defeat in the Asia Cup in the light of the reports submitted by Akhtar Rasool and coach Tahir Zaman.

He announced fresh elections of the PHF will be held from Oct 25 to Nov 25, starting from the club level and end at the national level.

Meanwhile, sources told Dawn that Qasim Zia had asked both Akhtar and Tahir to explain the reasons before the Executive Board about the defeat of the national team in the Asia Cup as he was facing tremendous criticism over the loss.

Akhtar, according to sources, had explained that while his team played quite well in the Asia Cup, just one bad game against South Korea turned the tide against them.

Tahir, on the other hand, was of the view that while he had tried his level best to train the team for the Asia Cup challenge, he could not pull off any miracle in the short period of one month that he spent with the boys.

Moreover, the sources said that Akhtar Rasool will be a strong candidate for the president PHF in the coming elections due to his close association with the ruling party PML-N. Federal Information Secretary Pervaiz Rasheed has been appointed as the Election Commissioner.