LAHORE, Nov 1: A group of former Olympians on Friday asked Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, patron-in-chief of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF), to appoint a neutral set-up to conduct fresh elections of the federation.

At a press conference here, Olympians Shahnaz Sheikh, Samiullah, Salim Nazim, Qamar Zia, and Mohammad Saqlain announced that they had already sent an application to the prime minister for a meeting.

The former players hoped that they would soon meet the premier to apprise him of the real problems which had caused the decline of hockey during the last five years.

“If we fail to get time from the prime minister [for the meeting], our next step will be to gather at the Parliament House to return the medals, which we won for this country, because we are unable to answer general public on the poor performance of national team during the past five years,” Shahnaz said.

Shahnaz said Saleem and Naveed Alam had filed a case in the Lahore High Court against the ongoing PHF elections and they had also included the inter-provincial ministry as respondent.

When asked if the government was not responsible for the current mess of hockey affairs, because being patron-in-chief of the PHF prime minister Nawaz Sharif did not nominate any name to contest election of PHF president, he said for that very reason the group of ex-Olympians was demanding the prime minister to appoint a neutral set-up for the elections.

“Otherwise, the PHF constitution asks the prime minister to nominate a name [for the post of president] to contest the elections,” he added.

Citing the deteriorating strength of the national hockey squad, he said: “Teams like Malaysia, Argentina, South Korea and South Africa have become so formidable that they are now beating Pakistan.”

Shahnaz emphasised it was the national duty of former Olympians to highlight the national team’s performance and its shortcomings.

Questioning the weight of PHF claim that around 627 players in different academies across the country had been receiving training from 57 coaches, Shahnaz noted many old players were still in the national team, which, he reckoned, was the case because there were no appropriate alternatives.

Criticising the mismanagement in national team’s affairs, he said four players had reached Japan to join national squad just one day before the start of the Asian Champions Trophy there.

“It was Pakistan which introduced the World Cup and the Champions Trophy but it is disastrous that [for the first time] we will not even be playing next year’s World Cup after failing to qualify for the event,” he lamented.

“Pakistan will also not be playing next year’s Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games due to bad policies of the PHF,” he added.

But when asked whether Pakistan’s non-appearance in these two events was not the result of federal government’s wrong policies — not allowing the PHF to send the entry through IOC-recognised Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) — Samiullah stepped in, saying the case was not pleaded rightly by the PHF with the ministry.

And when asked if they didn’t believe the government was also responsible for sports decline in the country due to its wrong policies, Shahnaz said: “You may be right.”

But he added: “As the [present] government is just four months old, it may not be able to give proper attention to sports, while dealing with other [more pressing and urgent] issues.”

Meanwhile, Samiullah predicted that if the present PHF set-up succeeded in surviving the next five years, even Sri Lankan hockey side would become formidable for Pakistan to beat.

Samiullah said he had backed the PHF to establish academies but due to wrong planning, the experience has failed.

He said critics had advised the PHF to make A, B, C categories of its academies to keep a promotion and demotion system, based on performance of the academies. “The suggestion for supporting 440 registered clubs of the country fell on deaf ears at the PHF.”

To a question, he said former Olympians on their part were also busy promoting the game, citing the example of Islahuddin Siddiqui and Shahnaz Sheikh who have been running academies in their areas.

Shahnaz said he had requested former PHF secretary Asif Bajwa to assist him in running an academy in Rawalpindi, but to no avail.

Noting that until 2004 Pakistan had been claiming third or fourth position in international events, but now, Samiullah regretted, seventh and eighth spots had become a routine matter for the green-shirts.

He appealed to the prime minister to bring in a neutral person at the PHF who knows the game of hockey and its administration.

“With right planning Pakistan within the next couple of years can raise a national team, which will be able to earn third or fourth position in an international event,” Samiullah stated.

Saleem Nazim also highlighted the wrongdoing being committed in the ongoing elections of the PHF. He claimed that the elections were being held by the paid coaches of the PHF.

Saqlain, meanwhile, underlined that Pakistan’s ratio of goals scored and goals conceded had also declined, mentioning during the past five years the national team scored only 67 goals while conceding 157.