LAHORE: The new management of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) headed by retired Brig Khalid Sajjad Khokar is yet to come clean on selection issues since an incomplete selection committee will be selecting squad for the Sultan of Johar Junior Invitational Hockey tournament.

The Sultan of Johor Junior Invitational tournament is scheduled to be held from Oct 11 to 18 in Johor Bahru, Malaysia for which the two-day trials starting from Sept 18 will be conducted in Islamabad.

However, the selection of the junior squad for the aforementioned event has not been free of controversies since it would be the third time since assuming the charge on Aug 27 that an incomplete selection committee will be dealing with selection affairs of the junior team.

The newly-formed five-member selection committee containing three constituents from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa including chief selector Abdul Rashid Junior, Farhat Khan and Saeed Khan while one member belonging to Punjab (Shahbaz Junior) and the other (Wasim Feroze) to Sindh was announced on Sept 3 and given the task of finalizing the junior team.

However, only four members of the selection committee will be observing the two-day trails for the junior event as also mentioned by the press release issued by the PHF, stating: “the committee comprising Abdul Rashid Junior (chairman), Farhat Khan, Saeed Khan and Waseem Feroze (members) will observe the trials at the Naseer Bunda Stadium, Islamabad on Sept 18 and 19.”

Surprisingly, the name of the fifth selector Shahbaz Junior who happens to be the lone selector belonging to Punjab in the national selection committee is missing from the panel of selectors.

Only chief selector Rashid Junior along with member Saeed did the job of selecting the initial probables for the junior event. Then when the selection committee reduced the probables to 35, Shahbaz Junior was again not present in the meeting.

And now for the third time when squad will be finalized for the junior hockey tournament Shahbaz Junior will be missing in the selection affairs despite the fact that almost 80 per cent probables belong to Punjab.

In his maiden press conference held here on Sept 8, when the PHF president was asked about non-availability of several selectors in connection with selecting initial probables for the training camp, he had admitted that the entire selection committee was not involved but from now onwards, he had promised, full selection committee would perform its duty.

The selection conundrum ahead of the junior hockey event might have several reasons but there are reports that Shahbaz Junior is being meted out the negative behavior by the new PHF set-up because he was named as selector on the request of the former PHF secretary Rana Mujahid who resigned after Khokhar took the charge as PHF president.

The new PHF regime is seemingly yet to accept Rana’s choice as a result of which Shahbaz Junior has so far been sidelined from selection affairs.

When Rana resigned as PHF secretary, his gesture was appreciated by both the PHF president and the IPC secretary but the way Shahbaz Junior has so far been ignored reflects the fact that the PHF is yet to do away with various lobbies working for their vested interests.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2015

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