PHF officials hold talks with Olympian Naveed

KARACHI: Olympian Naveed Alam, who has been one of the sharp critics of PHF, called on president Akhtar Rasool, secretary Rana Mujahid and other officials on Wednesday evening and discussed the differences within the hockey community, ‘The News’ has learnt.
PHF’s former secretary Asif Bajwa was also present in the meeting.
Sources said it was yet another move of PHF towards reconciliation with its opponent group of former Olympians and international players.
PHF has already made peace with a group of former players headed by Islahuddin and Shahnaz Sheikh and the two were appointed chief selector and chief coach of the national team, respectively.
But the group headed by Samiullah and Naveed Alam remained steadfast against “the PHF wrongdoings and mismanagement“.
Naveed has been working hard in Punjab at the grassroots level and has been in contact with all those against PHF, including former president Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, as well as district and club level hockey coaches and officials.
PHF is facing a huge financial crisis and a meeting with PM Nawaz Sharif to address it has been postponed several times.
The federal government has not released the funds demanded by PHF.
By talking with Naveed, PHF seems to be on a mission to get support in Punjab ahead of its meeting with the PM, now scheduled on March 3.
PHF did not want its opponents to create any problem ahead of the meeting, so it invited Naveed and offered him to work with it for development of hockey.
When contacted, Naveed said he had met PHF’s high PHF officials and discussed various issues.
He said that he did not have any personal issue with PHF and that he only wanted restoration of the constitution of PHF.
He said that during the last seven to eight years hockey had been destroyed at the domestic level. Naveed said the successes at Asian Games and Champions Trophy were due to Islahuddin and Shahnaz Sheikh, whom PHF had previously declared “old vehicles”.
“We have to identify why hockey is flourishing in India and average Indian players are getting millions of rupees and our players are not even getting their basic salaries,” said the former Olympian.
He said the infrastructure of hockey had been destroyed and that his group had pointed this out for a long time.
He said deserving clubs and players were not being allowed to play domestic hockey. “Club and school level hockey has disappeared. A number of departmental hockey teams have been wound up and all this is the consequence of PHF’s wrong policies,” he said.
Naveed said he made it clear to PHF that he was not fighting for his ego. He said all hockey bigwigs must sit at one place, put aside their differences and come out with a plan for the betterment of hockey. “We should be watchful of the increasing involvement of India in international hockey affairs. Look at how they stopped us from winning gold medal in the Champions Trophy,” he added.
Naveed said that he informed PHF that he would meet his group to discuss how the conflict could be resolved.
He said he had given some proposals to PHF to resolve the issues. “Neither the private sector nor any public institution is ready to help hockey,” he added. He said the meeting did not mean that he was going to join PHF.