February 4, 2003	Tuesday	Zul Hijjah 2,1423

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KARACHI, Feb 3: PTCL on Monday alleged Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) with hatching a conspiracy against them by manipulating the draws of the ongoing 50th national hockey championship and protested against the transfer of HBL players to Wapda.

“We have lodged a protest with technical officials against the transfer of Waseem Ahmad and Naveed Iqbal from HBL to Wapda in the final round which is an open violation of the PHF constitution,” Zafar Iqbal Gondal, PTCL director sports told reporters at UBL Sports Complex.

The PTCL official said it was a breach of rules and he had demanded explanation from the PHF as to why and how it allowed Waseem and Naveed to play from Wapda in the final round while it restricted them from appearing in the qualifiers.

PHF had disallowed Waseem and Naveed to play in the qualifiers, saying they could not represent Wapda as they did not intimate about the transfer before the deadline. PHF, however, allowed the two players to appear in the final round after Wapda gave Rs10,000 for each player as penalty.

Asked why he protested after reaching and losing the quarterfinals, he said “We had lodged the protest before the match. But we did not want to raise the issue before meeting Wapda who have fielded HBL players illegally.”

However, the technical director, Hanif Khan, rejected the protest saying that Wapda had already paid penalty.

Zafar lashed out at the PHF by alleging that it had become a party in what he called a “planned conspiracy” against his side as draws were prepared to favour certain outfits.

“The draws have been manipulated and PHF has become a party. The winners of pool ‘A’ have been pitted against runners-up of pool ‘B’ in the quarterfinals which never happens. It is surely dishonesty of the PHF,” he said.