ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Saturday hinted that the government would not release fund for the Pakistan Hockey Fede­ration without holding its audit.

The PHF has been claiming that the government is all set to release grant of Rs350 million to it.

However, the finance minister, while talking to the media at the Islamabad Club Polo Ground, said releasing fund for the PHF was not a problem for the government but they would hold its audit first.

He added that there would be no compromise on transparency.

When asked when the government would release fund, Dar said: “There are some issues of audit and transparency, but hopefully the matter of funding will be resolved soon.”

Apparently, the minister was hinting at the fund which had been released to the PHF during the last seven years.

The government believes that the PHF committed massive embe­z­­z­l­ement of fund which was meant for promotion of the national game.

Recently, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Pervaiz Rashid had also said that sufficient funding had been provided to the PHF in the past than any other federation but the money was not utilized properly.

On the other hand, a few days back, the PHF, which after holding a meeting at the Parliament House during its joint session, had claimed that the government was about to release Rs350 million for it as a special package.

But, the finance minister’s talk and body language on Saturday showed that the government was trying to evolve a mechanism for conducting complete audit of the PHF before doling out more money to it.

Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2015

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