LAHORE: It was the sideline of the probe committee meeting tasked with finding reasons behind the recent hockey debacle that proved more important than the actual gathering of the probe body which summoned the hockey head coach and captain of the national team on Thursday.

The recent hockey debacle in the Hockey World League which saw Pakistan fail to make it to the Olympics for the first time in its rich 67-year hockey history led to the formation of a probe committee headed by Inter-Provincial Coordination Ministry (IPC) secretary Ijaz Chaudhary and before which coach Shahnaz Sheikh and captain Mohammad Imran appeared.

However, while the probe committee meeting is yet to produce any result, it is actually the meeting between IPC secretary, Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) president Akhtar Rasool and PHF secretary Rana Mujahid on the sideline of scheduled probe body meeting that contains implications for hockey future in Pakistan.

Both Shahnaz and Imran appea­red before the committee which has three former Olympians as members in retired Col Mudassar Asghar, Shahbaz Senior and Khawaja Junaid besides Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) DG Technical Akhtar Nawaz Ganjera.

The second round of the probe committee meeting will be held on Friday after which the IPC will finalise its recommendations before putting them forward to the prime minister.

On the other hand, both PHF president and secretary only met IPC secretary Ijaz.

Sources said the IPC secretary met the PHF president and secretary in a separate meeting wherein a solution to the hockey crisis was discussed. On the occasion, Akhtar while presenting a plan how to resurrect the national game demanded financial help from the government.

He also expressed his disappointment over the performance of the national team but held the government responsible for the PHF financial crisis which, he said, led to the hockey disaster.

The PHF president told the meeting that if permanent solutions were not found out, he would prefer to step down, for the paucity of funds, he said was preventing him from performing his duty as the federation chief.

On the other hand, the IPC secretary, sources claimed, did not oppose PHF president’s ‘willingness’ to resign.

So, the PHF president and former Olympian Akhtar Rasool is most likely to step down for the second time without completing his constitutional term of four years as the message has finally been conveyed to him in a very diplomatic way during his meeting with the IPC secretary.

It may be mentioned here that, as per the PHF constitution, the government has no power to sack any PHF office-bearer without his consent. So, a middle way is likely to be adopted to separate Akhtar from the federation. Otherwise, it may trigger another ugly situation in the PHF which, as sources claimed, is likely to be run by former manager of the Pakistan team retired Brig Sajjad Khokhar.

If merit is any yardstick for giving the assignment of running the PHF affairs, Sajjad who was team manager during retired Lt Gen Mohammad Aziz Khan’s tenure from 2002 to 2006 simply does not deserve to be given the PHF top post. However, merit is not the yardstick that is taken into consideration in connection with the possible handover of the PHF to Sajjad but his proximity to the power corridors.

Former team manager Sajjad, as per sources, is a close man of federal minister Ahsan Iqbal who is in fact very close to the prime minister. So, this is actually Sajjad’s proximity to the power that be which helped him become frontrunner in the race for PHF president.

Presidents and prime ministers had flouted merit on many occasions with PHF and Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) being among several organizations which saw excessive political interference in the past.

Recently, the prime minister appointed Najam Sethi who by profession is a journalist as PCB chairman who later on had to step down after being faced with severe criticism. However, he is still chairman of the PCB executive committee.

Former president retired General Pervez Musharraf had also appointed Gen Aziz as PHF president and Lt Gen Tauqir Zia as PCB chairman while another former president Asif Ali Zardari also followed in his successor’s (General Musharraf) footsteps by appointing his close friend Zaka Ashraf as PCB chairman.

Earlier, Akhtar was also elected as PHF president in the second tenure of Nawaz Sharif as Prime Minister in 1999 but Akhtar disappeared from the scene when Pervez Musharraf staged a coup in 1999. Subsequently, General Aziz took over the PHF.

With Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and PHF president being on the same page earlier, the differences emerged in the post-Musharraf coup when Akhtar joined PML-Q which was working under the umbrella of the military dictator.

Nonetheless, differences between Akhtar and the prime minister were sorted out after reconciliation between the two with the incumbent PHF chief succeeding in getting PML-N provincial assembly ticket to contest in the 2013 general elections. Akhtar, however, let down the premier having lost the election to a PTI candidate.

Notwithstanding, Akhtar did manage to be elected as PHF president which many believe happened without Nawaz’ blessing and which has now seemingly snowballed into the current bone of contention between them.

Despite repeated requests from the players, coaches and many others, the prime minister did not release funds to the PHF which led to the current hockey disaster. It is believed in the hockey circles that had Akhtar decided to step down much earlier, or had the prime minister released the funds to the PHF for the sack of the national game, greenshirts could have avoided the debacle in Belgium.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2015

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