Olympians Qasim Zia and Asif Bajwa were unanimously elected the president and secretary for the next four-year term along with the rest of the proposed panel comprising four vice-presidents, namely, Wasay Jalil (Sindh), Nawab Laskari Raisani (Balochistan), Saeed Khan (NWFP) and Barrister Shahida Jamil (Women's Wing). Rana Mujahid Ali was elected associate secretary and Khalid Iqbal the treasurer.
Chief Election Commissioner Rao Iftikhar and Ejaz Gul conducted the election proceedings.
According to an amendment made to the PHF constitution, the members of the executive board have been increased to 18 from the previous 14.
The executive board now comprises, apart from the eight mentioned above, two individuals to represent departments, three technocrats, a representative from the Women's Wing, and the four provincial association secretaries.
Although, it was decided to select Parveen Sikander Gill to represent the Women's Wing at the 11th PHF Women's Council meeting that met a day earlier, decision about the rest will be made later.
Monday's meeting at the HCP also resulted in MNA Khushbakht Shujaat being elected the new chairperson of the PHF Women's Wing in place of Barrister Shahida Jamil.
Former MNA Tanzeela Amir Cheema was elected secretary while Parveen Sikander Gill senior vice-president.
Addressing the media on Tuesday, PHF President Qasim Zia, after thanking district representatives for attending the meeting and approving the panel proposed by the Congress, said he was glad that the PHF achieved another milestone in the shape of carrying out the elections.
About the federation's aims for the coming four years, he said, “I made 2010 Asian Games our target when I took over as PHF's president.
You would recall I had said even then that in one-and-a-half year's time we would be looking to take the Asian Games title,” he said.
“And to become the best in the world again, I had asked the nation to give us another three-and-a-half years,” he added.
The PHF president expressed hope that the Pakistan team would put up a good show in the World Cup scheduled to be held in New Delhi from Feb 28.
“The current PHF management has fulfilled all the promises. The national team has finished as finalists in several tournaments last year apart from winning important matches as well as the World Cup qualifiers. But I must stress here, that it won't be fair to associate big expectations from the players so soon. We may not have claimed the field but we have found the right direction and put ourselves on the right track,” he asserted.
About unearthing fresh talent, he said, “There is no dearth of talent in the country but we have to groom it. Karachi Nazim Mustafa Kamal has promised to lay Astroturf in three grounds, besides planning to build teams in each town.”
To a question regarding convincing foreign hockey teams to visit the country as the Pakistan Boxing Federation is hosting foreign boxers at the Benazir Bhutto International Boxing Tournament, he said, “I truly appreciate PBF's efforts but there is a difference between hockey and boxing. The former is played on an open field while the latter can take place indoors.”
But, he added, “Our inviting the FIH President Leandro Negre to Pakistan was a step towards achieving that goal.
“We have also received some positive response from international bodies and hopefully we would be able to host some international event in the near future,” he maintained.
About the inaugural Asian Champions Trophy which was to be held in Pakistan in 2009 but had to be postponed due to the national team's other assignments, he said “The next slot given to us for holding the event is March 2010, which will also not be possible due to our featuring in the World Cup. Therefore it has now been decided by the AHF that the inaugural edition will be staged in Malaysia at the end of March or April.”
