KARACHI, Jan 15: Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) made a mockery of the game, violating its own rules by allowing a player to represent a department without transfer at ongoing Under-20 national junior hockey championship on Thursday.

Yasir Islam, who belongs to Habib Bank, played for PTCL against Northern Area and scored two goals, breaching article 25 (e) of PHF constitution.

PHF's silence is surprising since its constitution forbids players from playing for departments without transfer, while HBL's are also tight-lipped rather than protesting over the illegal induction of their player in PTCL.

PHF constitution's article 25 (e) says: "The transfer period of player(s) from one club to another shall be first fortnight of January and July each year. Department/service player(s) may seek transfer from parent club/district within one month of their joining service."

PHF had also made last year's senior national championship a farce by allowing Sohail Abbas and Waseem Ahmad to play for Wapda instead of their parent department, HBL, without transfer.

PHF let the pair represent Wapda after a "fine", while HBL neither did anything to convince the players to remain with them nor did they raise an objection when they played for Wapda without taking release from the bank.

Asked to comment, organizers came up with a strange logic on the issue by saying they would only disallow the players to represent as guest players when their parent department would protest.

"We have disallowed players from Army and some other departments after they raised the issue. But if a department is not protesting, we will not ask the players to refrain from playing from departments other than their original organization," organizing secretary, Muhammad Shafique, said.

Yasir is not the only player appearing in the competition without transfer as Rizwan Khan, Junaid, Iftikhar, also from HBL, are expected to play for KESC against Railways on Friday.

Meanwhile, organizers came under fire when Islamabad team management complained that they were being treated shabbily and were running from pillar to post for decent accommodation.

"We came from Islamabad to Karachi at about 11.15pm Wednesday night. There was nobody to receive us at the station and we still do not have a place to sleep.

"We still have to get the daily and conveyance allowances. Our association is not rich body. We are stranded here with nobody to look after us," Islamabad manager Abdus Sami Faisal and coach Tahir Zaib said.

Sami said they reached the venue, Hockey Club of Pakistan at midnight only to return back to railway station. "We again came back from station and were allowed to sleep in the dining room of the HCP. We woke up at four in the morning when Punjab players came for breakfast."

He said Islamabad squad was finally stuffed into a railway's quarter where he said even animals could not breath. "The room is smelly, filthy and looks like a cattle pen," they claimed.

Sami and Shafique even exchanged hot words outside the venue. "We will sleep in the van tonight also. We still have no place to sleep and eat." Shafique said the confusion was created as the Islamabad officials did not intimate the organizers before their arrival, while his claim was contradicted by Sami and Tahir.

Ironically, team from Balochistan and other departments have been lodged at local hotels. Meanwhile, a blank scoresheet of the Army-Punjab Whites match signed by umpires, team managers, and judge, provided to the press, was another blunder by the organizers.