LAHORE, Dec 28: Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) continued playing musical chairs, bringing yet another set of senior and junior team officials and including old faces in the selection committees amid objections from some of the Congress members.

Former captain Tahir Zaman has been appointed junior team coach and Khwaja Junaid as his deputy, while controversial hockey figure Muhammad Shafiq, who was alleged to have beaten his junior Customs officer during a match, will be the new manager. Shafiq was appointed after Jahangir Butt was sacked.

Interestingly, Tahir has replaced Asif Bajwa who was promoted after Tahir was "relieved" of his duties after Athens Olympics. Asif was promoted as senior team's assistant coach after junior team surrendered at Karachi's Junior Asia Cup final against India in April.

Ironically, Tahir was junior team coach in 2000 and was sacked following fifth position at junior World Cup in Kuala Lumpur. He was elevated as senior coach after Hanif Khan was removed following Pakistan's fifth place at Kuala Lumpur World Cup in Kuala Lumpur in 2002.

The team faced humiliating defeats under Tahir during two years including 7-1 record-breaking defeat to minnows New Zealand at Commonwealth Games semifinals, a pathetic performance at Champions Trophy.

They returned without a medal from the Asian Games for the first time in the history under Tahir who was demoted as assistant coach after Dutchman Roelant Oltmans took charge last December.

Junaid was one of the three coaches on the panel which included Hanif and Shahbaz Ahmad before being sacked. Interestingly, Junaid said he was not aware about his appointment.

Asif, who became coach after Oltmans departure following expiry of his contract in December, will be assisted by Rana Mujahid who has virtually no experience of coaching. Samiullah, who was appointed "touring manager" before September's eight-match home and away series against India and was at helm during Champions Trophy in Lahore, has been retained.

While Akhtar Rasool was retained chairman of the selection committee, Islahuddin Siddiqui and Shahnaz Sheikh have been included as its "new members." Islahuddin was sacked as manager after team finished at fourth at Sydney Olympics but was retained as selector.

He was removed from that position later. Shahnaz was also a selector before being shown the door. He quit as team manager after a row with PHF and Wapda who alleged that Shahnaz instigated their players Sohail Abbas and Waseem Ahmad to play German league.

He was exonerated of the charges after an inquiry by PHF. Shahnaz had strongly criticised PHF secretary Brig Musarrat Ullah a day after Oltmans was appointed coach, saying he should be removed.

Saeed Khan has been retained as selector along with Hassan Sardar, while PHF's strong critic Saleem Nazim has already been ousted. The appointments were announced after the Council and Congress meetings but only after resistance from a few members.

PIA representative Mudassar Asghar objected to Shafiq's appointment. A representative from NWFP Zahir Shah criticised Tahir's appointment as coach. He said that Tahir had been tested as senior team coach and he did not achieve anything as junior team coach.

Musarrat defended the appointments, saying PHF had made investment on the coaches in the past and wanted to utilise their expertise. Zahir pointed out the audit statement had no signature of the auditor and it carried only the signatures of the secretary and the treasurer.

The secretary said that all the expenditures were approved by the president Gen Aziz Khan. The secretary said Tariq Kirmani's appointment as new president would be formally approved at another Congress meeting.

He said the new president would decide about his future as the secretary. Surprisingly, no Congress member criticised Pakistan team's performance during one-year as the secretary read a performance report, claiming winning graph of the team was more than 60 percent but unfortunately team failed to win any title.

PHF unfolded activity plan for the junior team which is to play Junior World Cup in the Netherlands in July next year. A home and away series of six matches will be held against India in February-March. Lahore, Faisalabad and Rawalpindi will host a match each, while Amritsar, Chandigarh and Jallundhar will be venues in India.

A six-nation tournament will be held in Pakistan in March-April before team's departure for Europe in June. The team will then travel to the Netherlands to take part in the Junior World Cup.

The senior team will tour Europe from Aug 5 to 22 to take in a four-nation Hamburg Masters and Rabo bank Trophy in Amsterdam. A four or six nations tournament would also be organized in September before 27th Champions Trophy at Chennai, India in Nov-Dec.

A four-nation women tournament will be held at Murree from June 18 to 24. PHF told Congress it was facing a shortfall of around Rs2million during the financial year from Jan to Dec 2005. It had estimated an income of Rs70.745million against the expenditures of Rs90.74 million.