ISLAMABAD: Poland’s hockey team will tour Pakistan in April to play matches with the local development squads, it was announced on Tuesday.

Pakistan Hockey Federation president retired Brig Khalid Sajjad Khokhar, flanked by secretary Shahbaz Ahmed Senior, announced this here at a press conference after the PHF congress meeting.

Poland’s team would visit Pakistan on a one-week tour during which they would play matches against national squads at different venues of the country. The PHF, Khokhar added, would constitute four development squads for the Poland matches.

“Pakistan is a safe country for sports and international hockey is reviving in the country,” he stated.

The PHF president and secretary said the Asian Hockey Federation had allotted a Hockey Five Tournament to Pakistan, adding the dates of the event would be announced later.

“It has been decided to give special representation to women in the federation’s affairs,” Khokhar said, adding. “A 20 per cent quota for women has been allocated, and in this regard Tanzeela Amir has been appointed as PHF general manager.”

Talking about the poor performance of national team at the 2018 World Cup, he said an inquiry report on it was yet to come.

Meanwhile, a number of ex-Olympians under the leadership of Manzoor Junior while addressing a separate press conference here in Islamabad termed the PHF congress illegal. They appealed to Prime Minister Imran Khan, the PHF patron, to intervene in the affairs of hockey, noting the performance of national team and the federation during the last four years had remained pathetic.

Manzoor Junior, Khawaja Junaid, Khalid Bashir, Rao Saleem Nazim, and Karachi-based Gulfaraz Khan, Syed Haider Hussain and others at a hurriedly-called a press conference, made serious allegations against the PHF.

They alleged the incumbent PHF regime, after the end of its tenure, illegally kept running the federation affairs for six months before getting re-elected unopposed last year on “the basis of bogus and fraud scrutiny of clubs”, as they sidelined those, whom they considered a threat.

Manzoor Junior announced that the ex-Olympians were going to hold a nationwide campaign against the PHF, lamenting the fast declining standards of hockey in Pakistan was distressing for hockey fans.

During the last four years, Manzoor underlined, the PHF despite getting government funds to the tune of millions of rupees failed to show any visible progress.

“The ex-Olympians feel very sad as Pakistan lost the opportunity to participate in next year’s Olympics after due to sheer negligence on the part of PHF the national team could not participate in the FIH Pro League,” he said.

Instead of spending millions of rupees on national junior team’s visit to Canada last year (where Pakistan conceded 26 goals and scored only one) the PHF should have saved that money to ensure participation in the Pro League, Manzoor said.

The Olympian said Shahbaz had tendered resignation as PHF secretary by saying that if government had no time to look into hockey affairs, then he too had no time for the same. “But now, he has taken back his so-called resignation,” Manzoor said.

This unusual stance of Shahbaz, the former Olympians present at the presser alleged, was aimed at pressurising the federal government for securing funds.

“The prime minister should intervene to resolve the hockey crisis, and both PHF president and secretary should be sent home,” they said.

Alleging that the PHF laundered 70,000 Euros from Pakistan to Holland last year, the ex-Olympians urged the PM should look into this scam too.

The Olympians also alleged that PHF’s official letter/s was also misused by federation in a bid to secure visas. They also said that in Tuesday’s congress, the PHF did not allow several members to participate in the meeting.

Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2019