LAHORE A seven-member disciplinary committee of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF), displaying double standards, issued a show-cause notice to Olympian Mohammad Saqlain and has summoned him at the National Hockey Stadium on Aug 12. Saqlain had levelled allegations on the top officials of the PHF after being dropped from the probables of World Cup qualifiers.
The committee has asked Saqlain to first submit the reply of the show-cause notice by Aug 11.
The committee is headed by Shahid Pervaiz Bhandara. Its other members are Pakistan cricket chief selector Iqbal Qasim, Rana Mujahid, Sagheer Ahmed, Gulfraz Ahmad, Rana Shakir-ur-Rehman and Zahir Shah.
In the show-cause notice served to Saqlain, the PHF took the stance that his statements in the national print and electronic media had maligned the federation.
He had alleged Asif Bajwa was carrying old personal vendetta against him and did not select him in the list of 31 probables, announced for the conditioning camp, which is being set up here from Aug 10 for the qualifiers.
Asif had met Saqlain in his office on Aug 5 and asked him to announce retirement from international hockey and in return offered him the assignment of junior team's coaching, which Saqlain refused.
The PHF showed double standards by referring the case of Saqlain to its disciplinary committee, while it had totally bypassed the same committee while imposing life bans on two former Olympians — Naveed Alam and Mansoor Ahmad — who had also been facing the allegations of criticising the PHF secretary in the press.
Instead of referring the cases of Naveed and Mansoor to the disciplinary committee, the PHF directly referred the matter to its Executive Board and imposed the life bans.
When contacted, the head of the disciplinary committee Shahid Bhandara said the cases of Naveed and Mansoor might have happened before formation of the committee.
But when he was informed that the PHF's Executive Board in its last meeting held in Karachi on July 17 imposed life bans on the two Olympians, the chairman said then it was unjust and he would ask the PHF secretary why he bypassed the disciplinary committee in those cases.
The chairman also went on to say that he would also ask chief selector Hasan Sardar to give his comments about the fitness of Saqlain.
He said Saqlain would be given a fair chance to clear his position and he would definitely get justice.
Bhandara urged that discipline should be held in all circumstances, as it was the lone way to strengthen the institution.
