LAHORE: In a surprising move, the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has also formulated a probe committee of its own to investigate the national team’s failure to qualify for the Olympics following an order of Prime Minister Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif.

The premier, who is also patron of the PHF, has also ordered the Inter-provincial Committee to form a probe body, which has already been constituted with IPC secretary Ijaz Chaudhry, DG technical Akhtar Nawaz Ganjera as non-technocrat members along with three Olympians, Shahbaz Senior, Khawaja Junaid and Col Mudassar Asghar.

The first meeting of that committee is to be held on Thursday. Head coach Shahnaz Sheikh, captain Mohammad Imran, PHF president Akhtar Rasool and secretary Rana Mujahid all are to appear before that committee.

However, just a day before of the meeting of that committee, the PHF on Wednesday issued a news release in which it announced its own committee which has former Olympians Shahid Ali Khan, Mansoor Ahmad and Akhlaq Ahmad as its members.

“Due to dismal and humiliating performance of the Pakistan hockey team in the Hockey World League Semi-Finals, under the orders of Honourable Prime Minister of Pakistan, the PHF has appointed Fact Finding Committee, who will probe the matter and will submit its findings to the PHF,” it stated.

At the HWL Semi-Finals in Antwerp, Pakistan needed to finish fifth to have a chance of making it to next year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro but finished a lowly eighth.

Published in Dawn, July 9th, 2015

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