LAHORE, Feb 5 Defending champions PIA earned their sixth victory in the ongoing 56th National Hockey Championship when they crushed Punjab by an overwhelming 9-1 margin in the event's final round at the National Hockey Stadium here on Thursday.

PIA, which was defeated only once in the seven matches they played are heading the points table with 18 points. National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) have equal points but PIA are ahead on goal average.

Thursday's match against Punjab was enjoyed by a majority of PIA players with as many as seven sharing the nine goals. Zaheer Ahmed scored a hat-trick.

Inayatullah fired first to present PIA an early lead in the fifth minute on a field attempt. Yasir Ali pumped in another to double the lead in the 14th minute. Shafqat Rasool struck the third goal in the 18th minute to make it 3-0.

Punjab's lone goal was scored by Rizwan Butt in the 25th minute to make the score 3-1.

The dying minute of the first half saw Kashif Ali making it 4-1 in favour of PIA.

The second session carried further misery for Punjab as Mukhtar Ahmed scored a fifth one for PIA in the 42nd minute. It had become a totally one-sided affair by the time Zaheer got his hat-trick in the 52nd, 61st and 64th minutes. And Mahmood Ali completed the tally by scoring PIA's ninth goal in the 69th minute.

In another match, National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) blasted Port Qasim Authority (PQA), drafting a 5-2 win after leading the first half by 2-1.

The start of the match could be described as stormy as three goals were scored in the first nine minutes alone with NBP taking a 2-1 lead.

The second minute saw Mohammad Atiq banging home first for the bankers. But PQA replied in the eighth minute through Mohammad Atif.

Atiq struck his second in the next minute to take a 2-1 lead, which remained intact till the end of the first half.

Haseem Khan consolidated the bankers' lead to 4-1 after lemon time, scoring back-to-back in the 41st and 49th minutes. Akhtar Ali made it 5-1 in the 51st minute to give the bankers a big lead before PQA's Kashif Javed managed to reduce the margin to 5-2 in the 56th minute.

Meanwhile, Wapda chalked up a 3-1 win against Habib Bank Limited (HBL).

Mudassar (seventh min), Sohail Abbas (31st min) and Rehan Butt (50th min) scored for Wapda. HBL's solitary goal came through Adeel in the 28th minute.

Following are the tray championship results

Police held PAF to a 2-2 draw.

Rana Omer (13th min) and Tasawwar Abbas (69th min) scored for Police while PAF's goals came through Kashif Yaqoob (22nd min) and Shahbaz Ahmad (60th min).

NWFP beat Capital Territories 4-1.

Abdul Samad (25th and 64th min), Kamran (42nd min), Asif Aslam (69th min) scored for NWFP while Mohammad Owais scored the consolation goal for the losing side in the 67th minute.

Pakistan Steel beat Sindh 6-3.

Sarfraz Ahmad (second min), Ishtiaq Ahmad (sixth min), Mohammad Rauf (30th and 39th min), Amir Zia (43rd min), Mohammad Imran (50th min) scored for Pakistan Steel. Sindh's three goals were scored by Qamar (38th min) and Mohammad Khalil (47th and 57th mins).