KARACHI, April 2: While former Pakistan captain Khalid Mahmood was elected as the new Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) secretary on Monday, six instead of two vice-presidents were also inducted amid objections from the Congress members who believed it was violation of constitution.

As expected, Zafarullah Jamali who replaced Tariq Kirmani on Aug 22 last year, also got his appointment by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz endorsed by the Congress before Khalid and six vice-presidents were elected after “consensus”.

Women’s representative Barrister Shahida Jamil and Lt-Col Nadeem Ahmad, who represented armed forces, were of the view that induction of four new vice-presidents should have been done in a more official manner rather than abruptly which surprised the Congress.

“If we consider PHF constitution, it is so rudimentary and simple that at times it is difficult to find what you are looking for. I agree, amendments to constitution can be made having two third majority of the Congress, but it would have been better had the addition of vice-presidents was put on agenda before which was not the case,” Shahida, also a legal expert, told Dawn.

Nadeem even contended that according to PHF constitution, amendments could only be made if Council approved it with two-third majority before putting it for approval of the Congress.

“No amendments by Congress could be made before the approval of the Council having two-third majority. But Congress is directly inducting four additional vice-presidents while constitutionally there should be only two,” Nadeem told Jamali at the Congress.

Jamali later told a press briefing that it was done to recognize and promote districts and provinces instead of departments.

“We want all the people to be with us. It is districts which produce players and departments grab the finest ones of them. Four more vice-presidents have been included at the behest of districts,” Jamali told reporters, adding that International Hockey Federation (FIH) has seven vice-presidents but PHF was not under obligation to follow FIH in this regard.

However, while Jamali claimed he took the step to promote districts, Collector Customs, Mohammad Yahya has also been inducted as one of the six vice-presidents. It is a fact that PHF is now revolving around serving or retired Customs officials since Jamali has taken charge.

Ironically, instead of declaring him a persona non grata and debarring him for life, PHF has inducted Ramzan Jamali as one of the two associate secretaries although he revolted against the federation recently.

Ramzan had formed a parallel Sindh Hockey Association and threatened PHF with legal action if his demands were not met. According to PHF constitution, any person involved in floating parallel association should be declared persona non grata and be debarred for life from PHF activities.

Surprisingly, Olympian Naveed Alam has been made in-charge of the academy at PHF headquarters Lahore. The appointment is astonishing as it is well known fact that Naveed thrashed and injured umpire Salman Zaidi at national championship in Peshawar in mid-90s before being banned for two years.

Jamali said apart from coaches, secretary, senior and junior team managers would be paid, but was unconvincing when asked what would be the process for their accountability.

“I will see how much foreign coaches were being pampered before setting up monthly remuneration for secretary, manager, coaches, video analyst and physiotherapist because these are full time jobs. Do you think we are hiring them free of charge? Of course they will be accountable,” said Jamali but he didn’t dwell upon what would be accountability process since paid officials often come under axe in other parts of the world after poor performances.

Interestingly, Jamali says senior team manager-cum-chief coach Islahuddin Siddiqui’s tenure will, at least, last until 2008 Beijing Olympics and it could be extended further. However, it remains to be seen how Islah’s case is tackled if God forbid Pakistan fails to deliver at Olympiad.

The president flatly refused to comment over allegations of nepotism and running affairs single-handedly by former secretary Akhtarul Islam, but added “I made all the decisions after consulting Akhtar, but I can’t accept an unwilling worker.”

New PHF office-bearers:

Zafarullah Jamali (president), Khalid Mahmood (secretary), Qamar Mansoor, Saeed Khan, Khan Mohammad Jamali, Saadat H. Naqvi, Mohammad Yahya, Shahida Jamil (vice-presidents), Gulfaraz Ahmad Khan (treasurer), Akhlaq Usmani, Ramzan Jamali (associate secretaries).