ISLAMABAD: President of Khyber Pakhtunkhawa Provincial Hockey Association Zahir Shah has requested the Senate Standing Committee on Inter Provincial Coordination (IPC) to properly look into the issue of Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) to improve declining standards of the national game.

Speaking to media persons here in Islamabad, he said that in a meeting the other day the committee wasn’t briefed properly by the PHF officials. Zahir alleged that the PHF officials had given false statements and a proper investigation into the affairs of the country’s hockey governing body was the need of the hour.

“They betrayed the standing committee,” said Zahir.

Talking to Dawn afterwards, he said that the committee was informed that the PHF informed the committee that it had received an amount of Rs542million from the federal and provincial governments but did not say anything about the funds it generated from other sources including the rent of shops at the Hockey Club Karachi and through sponsors.

“As per my knowledge, the bank transactions of PHF accounts is much higher than the claim of PHF as accounts saw a transaction of around 800 million,” he alleged.

The head of KP Hockey requested the standing committee to look into letters issued by PHF during the last three years for getting visas of various countries, as he suspected some officials of the federation helping unauthorised persons in obtaining visas.

The other day, the Senate Standing Committee had formed a three member sub-committee to investigate reasons behind the ailing state of national game and propose measures to bring improvement in affairs of hockey. The committee had also directed the PHF to furnish details of audit of last three years.

The three-member sub-committee featuring senators Walid Iqbal, Lt. Gen (retired) Salahuddin Tirmizi and Seemee Edzi will help the main committee to finalize recommendations to uplift national game, which used to be Pakistan’s identity.

When contacted, PHF president retired Brig Khalid Sajjad Khokhar and secretary Shahbaz Ahmed Senior said that they shared required information with committee and PHF is open for everyone. They said that some people are trying to make an issue out of nothing.

“We are open, we have conducted our internal audit, then a special audit was conducted, and nothing wrong was proved,” the PHF President said.

He said PHF will provide complete details of audit to IPC-formed sub-committee.

“Besides routine audit, a special audit by auditor general of Pakistan was also conducted, which is near completion, so we are open, we did nothing wrong and take every possible step to bring improvement,” said the PHF cheif, adding that as far as the rent of Hockey Club and getting money from sponsors is concerned, it is a nominal amount and every thing is on record.

Published in Dawn, February 6th, 2019