KARACHI, Sept 17: Senator Enver Baig on Saturday alleged that although PHF secretary Brig Musarrat Ullah Khan was responsible for visa scandal, Senate Standing Committee on Sports would like to question sacked official Mukhtar Ali.

“We have already asked Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) to produce Mukhtar before the committee. There is no response as yet as PHF says it is unable to find him.

“We will again ask PHF to produce Mukhtar before us or we will ask the law enforcement agencies to arrest him,” the senator told Dawn.

Enver said the standing committee had powers to summon a sports-related personality whenever it felt necessary for questioning.

“In Mukhtar’s case we will use this power. We would like to question him to know who is behind the scandal,” he said.

Mukhtar, a former director administration of PHF, was fired following an in-house inquiry into visa scam when he was found guilty of arranging visas for five people who went abroad during national team’s offshore tours as “hockey lovers.”

The investigation was conducted only after the human smuggling was exposed during grilling of top PHF officials by the Senate.

The Senator said Mukhtar had been made a scapegoat by PHF as only secretary was responsible for all the correspondence, including writing letters to embassies to request visas for team members and officials.

“Seeking visas for teams and officials is a very sensitive issue. The secretary is the only person who is responsible for all the correspondence. He should not go scot-free.

“If secretary doesn’t know what’s happening under his nose and his subordinates are arranging visas for unauthorised people on behalf of PHF by using federation’s documents and letterhead, then he is not good enough to run the secretary’s office,” he remarked.

The Senator said there was no justification of sending people abroad as hockey lovers which the PHF secretary had categorically admitted before the standing committee.

“We have information that PHF had sent some 45 people abroad who had nothing to do with hockey.

“But if we take PHF’s version, the secretary has conceded that five people were sent as hockey lovers using PHF office.

“Is this not a crime which has brought bad name to the country? Is this confession not enough to take action against top officials,” he questioned.

Enver was equally vocal while commenting on PHF chief Tariq Kirmani’s role in the issue, saying “he had tried to hoodwink the nation and misguided the media by hiding the facts.”

“Kirmani’s role in this whole issue is inappropriate. He misguided the media during a press conference that all is OK and PHF found nothing in the inquiry report on visa scandal while the situation was reverse. It was after that report PHF fired Mukhtar,” Senator said.

Kirmani at Feb 28 press conference had categorically stated that no evidence had been found that any PHF official was involved in sending people abroad using PHF office, saying the allegations were baseless.