LAHORE: The Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) has finally recognised the Akhtar Rasool-led Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) as it has released the three quarterly grants to the federation amounting to Rs. 3.5million, sources told Dawn on Thursday.

The Inter-provincial coordination minister Riaz Hussain Pirzada has not been recognising the PHF’s elections, which were held in December last year as result of which Akhtar and Rana Mujahid were elected president and secretary.

A number of eminent Olympians including Shahnaz Sheikh, Islahuddin and Samiullah had not accepted the results of the elections as well and staged a demonstration in front of the Parliament House in Islamabad where the IPC minister had agreed for fresh polls.

However, Shahnaz, Islah, Ayaz Mahmood and Shahbaz senior have now joined hands with the PHF, ignoring their previous demands while Samiullah is still opposing the elections along with other former Olympians.

And now, the PSB — which works under the ministry — has released the grant to the PHF. Furthermore, after getting the grants from the federal government, which has also incorporated the PHF secretary in its finance committee, it is an indication that Akhtar’s body is recognised by the government.

The next challenge for the PHF is to convince the ministry to allow it to send its entry to October’s Asian Games through the Arif Hasan-led Pakistan Olympic Association (POA).

The deadline to send the entries to the Games in South Korea is Sunday.

With the Arif-lted POA holding a meeting on Saturday to finalise the entries for the Games, the PHF has little time with Friday being the final day for the PHF to get permission from the government.

As the ministry doesn’t recognise Arif’s body, it is seemingly reluctant to the PHF to contact it for its entry.

While the Arif-led POA is recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the government-backed parallel body of the POA headed by Akram Sahi has also called a meeting on Saturday to finalise the contingent for the Asian Games.

Both the Olympic bodies have invited the PHF to attend the meeting. The PHF is desperate to participate in the Asian Games where it will defend its title, won in Guangzhou four years ago.