KARACHI, Aug 26: The newly-appointed president of Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF), Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, on Saturday directed the secretary to produce audit report of the last three years.

Jamali, who replaced Tariq Kirmani last Tuesday, has asked the secretary PHF Akhtarul Islam on Saturday morning to present him audit reports of the federation’s accounts from 2003 till the present month.

“The new president met me today and asked me he wants audited account reports of the PHF from 2003 till this month. He personally wants to inquire into the accounts of the federation,” Akhtar told Dawn at Hockey Club of Pakistan.

The development came following a report that PHF had first requested former treasurer Iqbal Bali to visit the PHF headquarters to help auditing firm audit the accounts during his tenure from July 2005 to January 2006.

The former treasurer was, however, directed by Akhtar to leave only after three days, although it is believed that the former treasurer had just started his work and was yet to complete his task.

Sources said Akhtar, a close friend of Musarrat, changed plans only after being requested by the ex-PHF secretary not to allow Iqbal to involve in the auditing of the accounts.

A bitter rival of Musarrat, Iqbal had quit on Jan 14 in protest, charging the former secretary of manipulating the district associations’ election.

However, Akhtar says Iqbal was asked to leave headquarters as his services were not wanted for more than three days.

“I indeed called Iqbal to help the auditors. But he was asked to leave after his task was over. He was there to help out the auditors to audit accounts only for the period when he was treasurer. Since his assignment was completed he was asked to leave and told he will be called up if auditors will ask,” the secretary gave an explanation.

Akhtar admitted that expenditures and budget for this fiscal year had not been passed since Congress meetings could not be held because of litigation. The official conceded the then president PHF Kirmani approved the budget of this year without the approval of Congress.

“Kirmani being the president approved all the expenditures and budget of this year. We had to involve in activity and there was no Congress because of court cases,” the secretary said.

According to PHF constitution, the PHF president has unlimited financial powers, but budget can only be approved by Congress. A mess was created by Musarrat-led PHF when some officials including those from Karachi moved court against alleged irregularities in the district associations’ polls.

PHF officials contend that it was because of these courts cases that Congress meetings could not be held for getting approval of officials’ appointed or budget.

Ironically, Akhtar is also one of the respondent’s in a case filed by the Karachi Hockey (KHA) officials as he was the convener of the PHF-constituted committee to look after Karachi hockey affairs, although the KHA officials were elected on March 12. The Sindh High Court on March 23 temporarily restrained PHF from interfering into KHA affairs.

One of the reasons for Jamali’s initiative of audit may be millions of rupees grant he had given to PHF when he was prime minister. But now he says there are little funds in PHF’s kitty but didn’t disclose the amount.

However, it is believed PHF is facing shortage of funds, although Musarrat had hired director marketing Naveed Haider in August 2003 on lucrative terms. According to a reply by Musarrat to the Senate last year, Naveed had collected Rs22,271,393 on which he got Rs4,156,156 as commission.

Jamali and Akhtar also seem to be on a collision course since the new president put his weight behind local coaches, while secretary had categorically stated he would be looking for a foreign coach after next month’s World Cup in Monchengladbach, Germany.

The new president, however, says he may seek a foreign coach if need be but he prefers ‘local Olympians’ as coaches or team manager. On the other hand, Akhtar, before the appointment of Jamali, had repeatedly and vehemently stated local coaches lacked modern techniques of coaching for which a foreigner could be more suitable.

Jamali, a well-known hockey figure, in the past could not manage to give more time to the national sport in different capacities including chief selector because of his political commitments, says he will try to put the game back on track.

“I tried to serve hockey in the past. I will try to serve the national sport once again,” he told Dawn.