January 29, 2008	Tuesday	Muharram 19, 1429

KARACHI, Jan 28: The technical officials of the National Hockey Championship regional qualifying round violated the rules by allowing a tournament officer to act as team manager of a local outfit on Monday.

Qadeer Ahmad, a tournament officer in the event, was strangely enough allowed to manage the Karachi Whites team during the match against Mirpurkhas and by allowing that, the organisers clearly flouted the rules of the prestigious national tourney.

Last year, Qadeer had come under the spotlight when BVS Parsi School team walked out in protest from an inter-school tournament organised by him, alleging that the official had been allowing over-age players in the school teams.

As Qadeer sat on the bench during the Whites match, neither tournament director nor his assitant S.A. Majid or the field jury raised any objection. Both the officials had also created a scene at last year’s Shaheed-i-Millat hockey tournament when they exchanged profanity while standing near sidelines.

Organising secretary Gulfaraz Ahmad, who is also secretary of the Karachi Hockey Association (KHA), and the tournament director turned a blind eye to Qadeer’s role as manger, not realising that he could not remain impartial as tournament officer in such a case.

Ironically, a KHA banner at the venue read, “to promote sports is our mission,” but Qadeer’s case casts doubts on the sincerity of the organisers.

Among other violations witnessed during the event, one could see that the Mirpurkhas players took the field with illegible shirt numbers while several unauthorised people were seen near the benches and around the field jury during the matches.