June 24, 2008	Tuesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 19, 1429

ISLAMABAD, June 23: Federal Minister for Sports Najamuddin Khan has said that he stands by his decision that Asif Bajwa is the new secretary of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF).

The sports minister was speaking to the media about the deliberations held during the 68th meeting of the Executive Committee of Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) at the Sports Complex here on Monday.

He rejected the impression that he was reversing his decision of appointing Asif Bajwa as the PHF secretary.

Najamuddin Khan said that he did not know anything about the meeting between PHF president Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali and the prime minister, who is also the Patron-in-Chief of hockey.

“I don’t know what the meeting was about but I can say that as PSB president I have made the right decision of appointing Asif Bajwa as the secretary of the federation,” the minister said.

He defended his decision of removing Khalid Mahmood by saying: “My decision to remove Khalid Mahmood is according to the constitution.

“To improve the level of the game we have to take some hard decisions.”

The outspoken minister criticised the 42-sport federations of the country for not performing up to the mark while failing to improve the level of games in the country.

He hinted a tough action against those sports federation which were violating the 2002 sports policy.

About the declining level of sports in the country, the minister noted, “Today departments don’t offer jobs to sportsmen while there are no major sporting activities at school level.”

The sports federation secretaries who have completed their two terms would be sacked.

“Notices has been issued to the secretaries of various sports federations who have completed their two terms and they would not be allowed to continue there work further,” the minister said.

He said a daily allowance of Rs100 would be given to players while the monthly stipend of PSB national coaches has been increased from Rs8,000 to Rs15,000.

Federal sports secretary Ashraf Khan said the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) also came under the ministry of sports.

“My reply to questions on behalf of the board on the floor of the National Assembly proves that PCB is under the sports ministry,” the sports minister claimed.