PHF audit proceedings begin

KARACHI: The federal government-appointed audit committee reached Lahore on Monday to start scrutinising the expenditure of the last seven years.
The committee is to review how the PHF spent the massive funds given to it by the PPP-led government.
Sources told ‘The News’ that the audit committee called on some current and former PHF officials on Monday at PHF office.
The current government has serious reservations on the expenditures made by PHF when it was headed by Qasim Zia and Asif Bajwa.
A group of former Olympians which has been opposing the current PHF setup developments in the national hockey said that the beginning of the audit was a good omen but the actual thing would be its findings. “They have to see how the PHF fooled the federal government and the entire nation in the name of hockey development in the country,” said Olympian Qamar Zia. “The result of giving massive funds to them was that Pakistan failed to qualify for the World Cup in 2014,” he added.
He said that his group was observing the situation and waiting to see if the audit committee called it. “We can tell it how PHF plundered the public money,” he said. “If it doesn’t invite us, we will ourselves have to contact it,” he added.
He said the exercise would be meaningless if the audit body did not listen to Khalid Mehmood, Zakauddin, Samiullah, Manzoor Junior and Salim Nazim. “It must also listen to club owners and domestic hockey organizers,” he said.
Former Pakistan captain Muhammad Saqlain said that everybody knew how papers were filled to present a clean record. “We will wait till the findings of the audit committee are released and then comment,” he said.
“The audit committee should listen to the game lovers, including the Olympians whose struggle compelled the government to conduct audit,” Saqlain said.
Meanwhile, the arrangements for visas and tickets of the national hockey team and its officials for Olympics qualifiers have not been completed.
PHF sent a list of 22 players and six officials for visas, although Belgium’s hockey federation had made accreditation for only 18 players and four officials for each participating team. PHF president Akhtar Rasool, when contacted, refused to talk about the audit.