LAHORE: In what appears to be a response to the federal minister’s accusations of funds being misused, the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has requested the Ministry for Inter-provincial Coordination and National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to nominate an official each in the four-member committee to conduct an effective check on its expenditures.

Having been forced to cancel the national team’s training camp in Islamabad for the 2016 Olympic qualifiers last week due to paucity of funds, the PHF appealed to the government to issue a financial grant to the country’s hockey governing body to help it out of its crisis.

The Olympic qualifiers are due to be held in Belgium in July and the PHF, which hasn’t been issued a financial grant for the last two years, faces a tall order to make necessary preparations for the team to make it to the Rio Games.

Reports that Hockey India (HI) offered to help PHF financially saw a strong reaction from federal information minister Pervaiz Rasheed who said the government had given Rs1 billion to the federation over the last five years and it has doubts that the funds were misused.

“To say no to corruption, the Pakistan Hockey Federation has requested the Ministry for Inter-Provincial Coordination and National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to nominate one official each in the four-member committee to have an effective check on the expenditures of the federation,” said a PHF news release on Monday.

“PHF President Akhtar Rasool said that the PHF has shook hands with NAB to spread their slogan of ‘Say No To Corruption’ and Pakistan hockey team along with the PHF president and team officials joined in a walk held in Islamabad on March 30 led by President of Pakistan.

“The PHF is a respectful, reverent and well-organised Sports Organisation in Pakistan and he [PHF president] has requested to the authorities for the formation of PHF Expenditures Committee, which would examine and monitor expenditures of the PHF as laid down in the financial rules of the Federation.

“PHF Secretary General would head the Committee with PHF Treasurer, an official of the Ministry for Inter-Provincial Coordination and a Director nominated by the Chairman NAB.”

Akhtar, a renowned Olympian centre-half, said that he believes that the presence of a NAB Director in the Committee would enhance its credibility and working and it would keep a strict check on the spending of the PHF.

The former government of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) allocated huge funds to the PHF during its tenure but it was largely because its then Punjab president Qasim Zia was the head of the federation and it is believed that those funds were given not to strengthen the game but to strengthen the party.

There are reports however that the Auditor General of Pakistan has completed the audit of the PHF accounts and got answers to all its objections.

Whilst the government must be careful in ensuring the funds are used in the right way, closing all doors of financial support for the national game for the last two years has added to the national game’s suffering.

The Pakistan hockey team has won 65 gold, silver and bronze medals in the last 68 years but the lack of government support — highlighted by the fact that a paltry amount of Rs1bn were handed to the PHF — is contributing to the slow death of the game in the country.

The PML-N provincial government in Punjab, meanwhile, has spent around Rs15 billion over the last three years on the so-called Punjab Sports Festivals, where useless world records have been made to get into the Guinness Book of World Records — records which were broken by individuals of other countries hours later.

Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2015

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