Shahbaz briefs Senate committee on state of hockey

KARACHI: A meeting of the sub committee of the standing committee on Inter-Provincial Coordination was held on Tuesday in Islamabad to discuss the country’s decline in hockey.

The meeting was chaired by convener Senator Walid Iqbal. The meeting was attended by Senators Salahuddin Tirmizi and Seemi Ezdi, secretary IPC Akbar Durrani, DG PSB Arif Ibrahim, PSB director Azam Dar, PHF’s Akhlaq Usmani, and some former Olympians.

The participants of the meeting discussed at length the poor performance of Pakistan at international level. PHF secretary Shahbaz Ahmed briefed the meeting about the situation and said that there was need to work at the grassroots level to find fresh talent.

He said that PHF has planned a comprehensive plan for the promotion of hockey. He said PHF recently organised a domestic tournament in Gojra to identify young talented players. “We did get some talented young players,” he added.

The PHF secretary informed the committee that despite meager resources and non-availability of funds PHF participated in international events, including the World Cup 2018. “Due to non-availability of funds we failed to achieve the desired results,” he said.

He also informed the meeting that despite limited resources the PHF was working on different plans for the promotion of the national game in the country. Senator Walid said only the current management of the federation could not be held responsible for the poor performances. “The previous governments did not pay attention to hockey,” he added.

Walid said that for bringing improvement in the performance of Pakistan’s hockey team there was need to provide resources to PHF. He added that the committee would send suggestions to the federal government for bringing improvement in the national game.

Former Olympians Khalid Bashir, Khwaja Junaid and Manzoor-ul-Hasan accused PHF officials of corruption. Walid said the opponents of PHF should present concrete evidence of the alleged corruption. “The committee will make those proofs in its report to the government,” he said.