LAHORE, Sept 23: Gen Muhammad Aziz Khan and Brig Musarrat Ullah Khan Monday were re-elected unopposed as the president and secretary of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) respectively.

The two top officials came into power in July 2000 after the Pakistan Sports Board removed Arif Abbasi as the president and Brig M.H. Atif resigned.

Mohammad Iqbal was also re-elected as treasurer by the general council which also elected Mohammad Saeed Khan (NWFP) and Zafar Iqbal (Sindh) as vice-presidents.

Jawaid M. Quddusi (Sindh) and Saleem Nazim (Punjab) were installed as associate secretaries.

The council members have been elected for a four-year term 2002-2006.

Brig Musarrat told newsmen the PHF elected both the vice-presidents from the provinces instead of one from the province and another from departments which was the past practice.

The PHF secretary said the decision was taken because Saeed and Zafar were representing both the province and department. Saeed belongs to Police and NWFP, while Zafar is from Customs and Sindh.

The PHF official said the team manager Col Zafar Ali Khan had submitted the tour report including series against Spain, Commonwealth Games and the Champions Trophy.

Asked did the manager comment on Sohail Abbas’s performance in the Champions Trophy, the PHF secretary replied in negative. It was not necessary to comment on each and every player’s performance, he said.

He said Sohail played well in the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, but was out of form in the Champions Trophy.

The PHF official said the budget of Rs40.50m for 2003-2004 had been approved and added the total deficit of the PHF had been reduced from Rs10.75m to 0.75m this year.

He avoided to predict that Pakistan would be able to regain their lost glory during the current tenure of the elected body.

He said the performance of the PHF was improving but lot of work had to be done and claimed that the overall performance of the PHF was satisfactory.

However, it may be mentioned the team has failed to win a single major title during the two years.

More than 90 representatives from all the 106 districts   of the country attended the general council meeting.

The general council formed eight committees to run the hockey affairs smoothly, secretary said but added the selection committee had not been changed since the team had no major assignment after the Asian Games being organized from Sept 29 to Oct 14 in Busan, South Korea.

However, he said the members of the committee would be changed after a couple of weeks.

The eight new committees chairman are:

Competition Committee: (Zahir Shah),

Disciplinary Committee (Brig Khalid Sajjad Khokhar)

Umpiring Committee  (PHF secretary),  

Coaching Committee (Saleem Nazim),

Selection Committee (S.K. Tressler)

Constitution Committee (Mohammad Saeed Khan)

Protocol Committee (Shahid Bhinder),

Marketing Committee (Saqib).

Elected office-bearers:

President: Gen Mohammad Aziz Khan.

Vice-presidents: Saeed Ahmad (NWFP), Zafar Iqbal (Sindh).

Associate Secretaries:  Jawaid M. Quddusi (Sindh), Saleem Nazim (Punjab)

Treasurer: Mohammad Iqbal

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) re-elected hierarchy faces a dilemma with a question will the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) recognize its elections.

The POA secretary Latif Butt has been claiming that his body would not accept any elections conducted without the presence of its representative.

In this regard the POA had quoted a decision taken at International Olympic Committee (IOC) meeting in Kuala Lumpur, this year to counter the intervention from the governments in sports organizations especilly in Asia and Africa.

The POA’s resistance against the national sports policy is another reason due to which PHF is likely to face tough time as it has held its polls according to the said policy.

The POA does not accept the newly-formulated national sports policy and has challenged it in the court.

A PHF press release on Sept 21 said “it would be of interest to note that PHF is the first national sports federation having restructured itself under the devolution of power plan and in conformity with the national sports policy.”

“The PHF Congress meeting will be attended by representative delegates of all the districts including Azad Jammu and Kashmir, northern areas and Fata besides women representatives of the respective provincial hockey associations”.

The POA had rejected the elections of the Pakistan Badminton Federation (PBF) held by the PSB this year due to the same reasons.

The tussle between the two bodies, POA and PSB, has deprived the Pakistan shuttlers from participating in the Asian Games in Busan, starting from Sept 29.