KARACHI, June 23 Pakistan national hockey team's former coach Naveed Alam has pointed a finger back at the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) after they served him with a legal notice on Monday for failing to submit the record of Rs2.5 million worth of spending during the team's tour of Europe last year.

Speaking to Dawn on Tuesday, Naveed said this latest development implementing him in yet another case was also linked to the long chain of events that began a year ago after Asif Bajwa was suddenly made federation secretary by the then Federal Minister for Sports Najamuddin Khan without taking Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, who was the PHF president at the time, into confidence.

“I have been suffering in silence for the past eight to nine months that saw me involved in all kinds of mess including a murder case and all this just because I did not accept Bajwa as the federation secretary until Jamali Sahib approved of him,” he said while hinting at a personal grudge against him on PHF Secretary Asif Bajwa's part.

About the current charge on him, Naveed said “As a part of our build-up for the Olympics, we toured some five countries including Germany, Holland, France and Ireland after featuring in the Azlan Shah Cup. The entire expenditure during this tour was around 72,000 euros, which exceeded the 64,000 euro budget released to us by the federation and I had to raise the shortfall by borrowing money from various sources in the hope that we would be reimbursed by the PHF on our return to the country.

“But we returned from Ireland to find the federation involved in this tug of war with the Federal Ministry for Sports. That's when I went on record to say that I wouldn't acknowledge Bajwa as the new secretary until Jamali Sahib does so and thus the foundations of Bajwa's vendetta against me were laid,” he explained.

The former Olympian elaborated “Bajwa, who is 99 per cent behind all this, is more of a politician than a hockey player. He started dividing the players soon after appearing on the scene and it all had its repercussions in the form of the Beijing Olympics debacle. Seeing him poke his nose in our affairs, I was constantly on edge at the time.

“The PHF, after Jamali's stepping down from the post of its president, never intended reimbursing me for the Europe tour expenditures so they have decided to accuse me of embezzlement despite my submitting a record of each penny spent on the tour back then. Jamali Sahib had even approved 50 per cent of the money the day he resigned but the new management stepped in to have the payment stopped,” he said.

“Soon after resigning from the coach's job last year, I found myself being accused of all kinds of wrongdoings since October 15, 2008 but nothing could be proven against me and I was cleared by the anti-terrorist court of my last case only recently on June 11, 2009. But now fresh hell has broken loose in the shape of this embezzlement issue,” he said.

“I want a neutral probe committee set up with hockey legends of the likes of Samiullah, Shahnaz Sheikh, Akhtar-ul-Islam and even Qasim Zia along with government people, members of the media, auditors and bankers to look into this matter,” he requested.

Meanwhile, a PHF spokesperson said that the federation has served Naveed Alam with a notice to explain a shortfall of Rs2.5 million on the tour on grounds of an auditory report being carried out by the auditor-general at the request of the federation.

“Gathering the media and raising a hue and cry won't be of much help right now. Our advice to him is to quickly come up with an explanation regarding the missing money in order to clear himself within the next seven days as the audit ends on June 30. It is the nation's money after all,” he concluded.