THE Congress of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) once again proved on Thursday that it is a dummy body as it elected its new president retired Brig Khalid Sajjad Khokhar. The Congress voted unanimously for Khokhar despite knowing fully well that he is a hand-picked man for the job owing to his close family relations with Federal Minister Ahsan Iqbal, and has no prominent standing in the field of hockey.

In the past too, the Congress had been endorsing such decisions from the prime minister(s), who as patron-in-chief of the PHF, have an effective role in the federation. But to say that those responsible for bringing this change in the PHF have done a commendable job is a load of crap and the fact remains that only a certain lobby has been entertained in the entire move of replacing the old guard.

A complete drama was staged in which the previous president, former hockey captain and Olympian Akhtar Rasool, his staff and the entire national team were put on ventilator with all their resources either depleted by design from the authorities or completely cut off.

The federal government refused to issue a special grant to the PHF in the last two years, just because Akhtar was at the helm. To add fuel to fire, the national team was not honoured for winning the gold medal in the Asian Champions Trophy, nor for grabbing a silver at the Asian Games in 2014 which was heart-breaking for the players.

The PHF with great difficulty managed a short seven-day training camp for the all-important qualifiers while team could reach Belgium just four days before the start of the tournament as the funds were not released by the govt earlier.

With hardly any funds at their disposal and no proper training facilities or preparatory tours, Pakistan naturally fell short of qualifying for the Rio Olympics at Antwerp, Belgium and subsequently the PHF president was forced to resign the post.

The authorities conveniently ignored the fact that in last three international events before the qualifiers, the Pakistan hockey team had earned one gold and two silver, showing a marked improvement in its performance compared to the past several years.

Ironically, the cash prizes for team’s Asiad performance were awarded after the players returned from Belgium after losing the Olympic qualifiers. If the govt had rewarded the national team prior to their departure to Belgium, the incentive would have boosted the players’ morale which was otherwise at the lowest ebb at Antwerp due to the step-motherly treatment meted out to them.

Moreover, when the national team stunned everyone with their performance by qualifying for the final of the World Champions Trophy in India the same year, beating the arch-rivals in an electrifying semifinal before a hostile home crowd in 2014, the federal government continued to look the other way instead of eulogising the victors.

It must also be mentioned here that the national team only managed to reach India for Champions Trophy after a Pakistani business tycoon Nadeem Omar had come to its rescue as the main sponsor, financing the team’s visit with a lucrative grant of Rs5 million. Had it not been for Nadeem’s help, Pakistan would have never participated in the event to bag a silver medal.

But all said and done, one still expected the authorities to replace an Olympian of the stature of Akhtar Rasool with a renowned hockey player as the PHF boss. However, Khokhar’s appointment out of nowhere has left the critics and former players equally shocked. And the credit for this untimely change goes to the Inter-provincial Ministry which made all the background efforts to quietly usher in Khokhar as the new hockey chief and convince Akhtar to quit. The IPC, instead of getting involved in such political manoeuvres, should concentrate on taking measures to sincerely promote sports in the country.

Reliable sources confirmed that Khokhar has been desperate for bagging some role in the field of sports and had only last year attempted through federal contacts to bag the post of Pakistan Tennis Federation president.

However, when a heavyweight like Salim Saifullah got the post, Khokhar turned to hockey and has finally made it at the helm. If he really wants to justify his appointment at the PHF and is keen to do something good for the national game, he should focus on raising a competitive team to run the game with aplomb and on merit.

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2015

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