14 January 2005	Friday	03 Zilhaj 1425

KARACHI, Jan 13: Pakistan Hockey Federation's (PHF) new chief Tariq Kirmani on Thursday vowed to keep a close watch on his lieutenants to bring hockey glory back by running the affairs on professional lines.

Mr Kirmani found himself in a tight spot when he faced a barrage of questions from media about the policies, decisions, allegations and recent appointments made by secretary PHF Brig Musarrat Ullah Khan, approved by former president Gen Aziz Khan and endorsed by the new PHF boss.

The PHF president, who had already expressed his confidence in Gen Aziz and secretary by endorsing recent changes to the team managements, said the decisions were for promotion of game and it was a matter of how one interpreted the changes.

However, the PHF boss said he had no clue that recently-appointed junior team manager was allegedly involved in a police case for beating his junior official who was a Customs officer. "I think decisions taken by the officials are right.

It is the matter how people interpret them," PHF boss told a press conference when asked to justify the appointment of Tahir Zaman, Khwaja Junaid as junior team coaches, although they had been discarded from similar position, while Asif Bajwa had been elevated as senior team coach after India whipped his side 5-2 at Junior Asia Cup final last April.

The PHF president said he was unaware that Muhammad Shafiq, the newly-appointed junior team manager, had been alleged to have beaten Naeem Ahmad during a domestic tournament following which a police complaint had been lodged against him.

"I do not know about that incident," replied the PHF president. Mr Kirmani again expressed his ignorance when asked how the administrative affairs could be considered satisfactory when there were allegations on the secretary of inviting hand-picked officials for Congress and Council meetings.

"I am not aware about any such incident too," he said when pointed out that instead of four elected Karachi and one Mirpurkhas representative, the secretary had invited five individuals of his choice for 40th Congress meeting held on Sept 23, 2002, in Lahore. But the PHF president was confident of running the affairs with an iron hand and promised to change the sagging fortunes of Pakistan hockey, keeping a check on all activities by taking personal interest.

"All I can say is that there will be no mismanagement in my tenure. There will be no joyrides and the funds generated for hockey will be spent on the game not for obliging people or any other activity.

"There is no question about spending money on anything else than hockey," he said when asked why PHF had not been disclosing audited accounts statement to media for the past four years, although it accumulated Rs350 million in four years - a huge amount which perhaps was never collected in the past.

While Mr Kirmani said in some cases it became imperative to send few people to offshore tours, he did not mince words in saying he would not tolerate freeloaders in the form of "observers" after an example was cited about NWFP Boxing Association president Waqar Maroof who was sent by PHF to Kuala Lumpur to watch Asia Cup as an observer.

Musarrat, however, clarified that Mr Waqar also had hockey representation from the province, but did not elaborate what results could be obtained by sending observers on tours abroad.

PHF chief was asked how would he justify that administrative affairs had been handled satisfactorily when the team gave worst-ever performances during past four years including 7-4 thrashing by India at 2003 Amstelveen Champions Trophy, 7-1 drubbing by minnows New Zealand at 2002 Commonwealth Games semi-finals, returning without any medal from Asian Games the same year for the first time in history.

"We should not take into consideration each and every match and besides somebody has to lose. But we will work on coming from our current fourth ranking in the world to first spot," he answered.

Asked whether he would prefer to keep himself involved in hockey or he would be relying on Musarrat like Gen Aziz who had given a free hand to his secretary surrounded by group of opportunists, Mr Kirmani made it clear there would be no question of abdication in his case.

"The president and secretary have their roles to play. But I must tell one thing that there will be no abdication during my tenure. We will seek policy guidelines by consulting Council and Congress," he remarked, but ruled out immediate amendments to PHF constitution and added it could be done if required.

Oozing confidence, Mr Kirmani gave a new hope of sport's revival, saying only transparent decisions and merit would reign supreme and added he would unfold plans about new domestic format which would be focussed on grassroots hockey rather than departments.

"We will run PHF on professional lines. Decision-making, transparency, merit and discipline could bring results. We will be unfolding new format by mid-February which will involve inter-school, inter-district and inter-province leagues. Players also need rewards. Contractual employees in departments will be offered health insurance and revenues will also be generated," he promised.