LAHORE: Former Pakistan hockey captain and legendary forward Shahbaz Ahmad Senior has termed his transfer from Islamabad to Karachi by his parent body PIA as an act of revenge and vows to get a stay-order against the harsh decision.

Shahbaz, who led Pakistan to win its last World Cup in 1994 and the Champions Trophy title the same year, while talking to Dawn said that as he had filed a case against PIA in Islamabad High Court for not giving him due promotion despite being the senior most general manager marketing in PIA’s Islamabad station, he was transferred to Karachi on a day when 4000 employees were transferred from Karachi to Islamabad.

“I am the only one who has been transferred from Islam­abad to Karachi, in the HR department, while I was working in the marketing department. Is there any logic in this?” asked Shahbaz who earned a lot of honour as an international hockey player and was also decorated with the Hilal-e-Pakistan Award, President of Pakistan Award and Pride of Perfor­mance.

Shahbaz, who played 300 plus international matches for Pakistan, further said that his transfer to the HR department would definitely be a setback to his promotion case and this was the main target of PIA behind his transfer.

Ex-hockey captain transferred to Karachi, shifted from marketing department

He said that in the last hearing at the Islamabad High Court, Justice Amir Farooq had asked PIA to submit its reply in his case of promotion, which they could not file in the last three months. “As PIA has no solid reply for not giving me my due promotion, instead of giving the reply to the court, they decided to transfer me from marketing to HR department,” claimed Shahbaz.

“I had also written a letter to PIA Chief a year back, hoping that since he belongs to the forces, he will not ignore merit in my promotion case,” recalled Shahbaz. “But I did not receive any reply from the PIA boss and so I went to the court, some three months back.”

“It was easy for me to enjoy PIA job like Wasim Akram, Moin Khan, Shoaib Mohammad, M Irfan or Qamar Ibraheem to withdraw salaries while sitting at home, but I preferred to perform duties in Saudi Arabia, Rawalpindi and now in Islamabad,” he contended.

“My annual character report is excellent and as an extremely productive officer I have recovered Rs 30 crores and in next one week time I will recover another Rs 80 crores of PIA,” he said. “I served my country as a hockey player for almost ten years (1986 to 1996) and earned many titles for it, but now I am being treated as an ordinary employee of the organization,” said Shahbaz who was declared player of the tournament in both1990 and 1994 World Cups, .“But I will not surrender and I will fight till last to get my right,” he said.

Shahbaz said on Monday he would try to get an stay-order against his transfer orders to Karachi. He said the Islamabad High Court has given 15 days to PIA to submit its reply in his case of promotion.

Shahbaz further said first the PIA had issued him a show-cause notice, claiming that he had no educational degrees, but when he submitted his all three degrees, that notice was withdrawn.

Published in Dawn, December 5th, 2020