LAHORE, June 7: In a major development, the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) on Thursday announced official pardon for five players over their participation in the controversial World Series Hockey (WSH) in India, also reducing significantly their cash fines in the process, paving the way for national selectors to include three of them in the 18-member squad for the European tour.

The PHF think-tank headed by president Qasim Zia first held a meeting and decided to reduce the cash penalty of Rs1 million each imposed on veterans Shakeel Abbasi and Rehan Butt to Rs100,000 apiece and asked for an immediate payment of the fine.

Three others, who had appealed for pardon, were Zeeshan Ashraf, Wasim Ahmad and Mohammad Imran Warsi. Their fine was reduced to Rs50,000 each from Rs250,000 apiece.

After the PHF forgave the players — Shakeel Abbasi, Rehan Butt, Zeeshan Ashraf, Wasim Ahmad and Mohammad Imran Warsi — the Hanif Khan-headed selection committee recalled Shakeel, Wasim and Imran for the European tour starting from June 9.

After Pakistan’s disastrous show at the recently concluded Azlan Shah Cup, it was expected that Shakeel, Wasim and Imran would return for the European tour. However, Rehan failed to get the selectors’ nod.

To accommodate the three above-mentioned players, the selectors axed four members of the 19-member Azlan Shah Cup squad, namely Shabbir Ahmed Khan, Mohammad Zubair, Aamir Shahzad and goalkeeper Imran Butt.

“Three of the players [Adnan Maqsood, Tariq Aziz and Mudassar Ali Khan] who did not appeal for pardon, the PHF has asked them to apply [for the same] within 10 days of this notice. Otherwise, they may face the consequences, for which they themselves will be responsible,” said PHF secretary Asif Bajwa while announcing the decision of the think-tank here at a news conference.

Others who were present at the news conference included head coach Akhtar Rasool, coach Khawaja Junaid, chief selector Hanif Khan and selectors Chaudhry Arshad and Khalid Bashir.

“The PHF has announced the penalties [for the players] while following its own constitution as their [players’] cases did not fall under the jurisdiction of the International Hockey Federation (FIH),” Bajwa stated.

“The FIH has announced strict punishment for only those who had signed the contract with the WSH after March 31, 2012. But as all eight Pakistani players signed the contract before that date, the PHF dealt this case according to its own constitution,” Bajwa clarified.

To a question about Pakistan team’s chances in the London Olympics, the secretary said the PHF had never made any claim for a gold medal in that event.

“Everyone knows that the current PHF management right from its day one has set the target to regain the supremacy in Asia and we achieved it by winning the 2010 Asian Games title. As regards the London Olympics we want our boys to perform well; our maximum target in London is to make the podium. The real target is to achieve victory in the 2014 World Cup,” he emphasised.

He said 14 other players including Rehan had been called to a 10-day training camp, which would be held at the National Hockey Stadium from June 11. The probables of that camp would be eligible for Olympic selection, on the basis of their performance, Bajwa added.

To a query, the PHF official said Rehan would attend the camp to demonstrate his fitness. But when asked if Shakeel, Imran and Waseem were fit, since they had not been in action after playing the WSH in February, Bajwa claimed their fitness level was equal to that of national team.

Meanwhile, to a question, head coach Akhtar Rasool admitted that the performance of his team in Azlan Shah Cup was not defendable.

“Nobody can defend that performance, but everyone should also think about the reasons to arrive at the right conclusion,” he stated.

“I took the charge around one month ago and no one could bring improvement in such a short time period. Moreover, the team largely consisted of juniors who [regardless of the results] played well and showed spark as their attack ratio in the Azlan Shah Cup exhibited,” Akhtar claimed.

The head coach said as six junior players joined the national team in Malaysia, as they remained there after playing the Junior Asia Cup, he could not test them with other members of the team in any training camp and that also created problem in finalising the combination.

Later, Hanif Khan announced the team and names of the camp probables.

Describing the talented juniors as asset for Pakistan in the 2014 World Cup, Hanif dispelled the impression that the selection committee had taken a U-turn by including three seniors in the Europe-bound squad.

On the Europe tour, Pakistan will play two matches against Germany and one match each against Belgium and the Netherlands.

Squad: Goalkeeper: Imran Shah. Full-backs: Mohammad Irfan, Syed Kashif Shah, Mohammad Khalid, Mohammad Imran Warsi.

Half-backs: Sohail Abbas, Fareed Ahmed, Rashid Mahmood, Mohammad Rizwan Junior, Mohammad Tousiq, Wasim Ahmad.

Forwards: Mohammad Waqas, Shafqat Rasool, Mohammad Umar Bhutta, Shakeel Abbasi, Abdul Haseem Khan, Mohammad Rizwan Senior, Ali Shan.

Camp probables: Aamir Shahzad, Shabbir Ahmed Khan, Mohammad Zubair, Imran Butt, Rehan Butt, Mohammad Ateeq, Ammad Shakeel Butt, Afridi (goalkeeper), Mohammad Arsalan Qadir, Mohammad Irfan, Saleem Nazim, Muzammil Bhatti, Abdul Zohaib Khan, Dilber Hussain.

Coaches: Danish Kaleem, Anjum Saeed.