KARACHI: The Karachi Hockey Association (KHA) has voiced their concern on the step-motherly treatment which is meted out to the national game and suggested that Chief of the Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif should take over the reins of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) from the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who is its patron-in-chief.

This was the crux of the annual executive committee meeting of the KHA held at its Gulshan Iqbal hockey complex on Sunday. Senior vice-president of the KHA, DSP Ejazuddin, chaired the meeting in the absence of KHA president Wasey Jalil who is away from the country.

Briefing newsmen, KHA secretary Farooq Khan said when the prime minister has no time to meet the national team that won back-to-back silver medals in the Asian Games and Champions Trophy and duly reward them to raise their morale, it was appropriate that he should step down and make room for the COAS.

He identified closure of hockey teams in a number of organisations as a major factor of decline of the national game in the country.

Criticising the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB), he said instead of probing the Belgium debacle, the inquiry committee should have been formed against the inefficiency of the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) which is primarily responsible for deterioration of the country’s sports.

He said the PSB should have carried out the audit of the PHF’s last five years accounts much earlier instead of delaying it so long and fixed the responsibilities.

The secretary thanked the PHF for their kind gesture of gifting the HCP Stadium’s used astro turf to the KHA and the Sindh government for allocating funds for its laying at the KHA complex. The work is expected to be completed before the end of this year.

The KHA put their weight behind the incumbent PHF officials and said they would continue to support them in future.

The Sindh Hockey Association (SHA) president former Olympian goalkeeper Shahid Ali Khan who also joined the meeting later, lauded the KHA for organising many events of the PHF calendar in the city.

The meeting was also attended among others by vice-president Jan Mohammad, Dr Majid and joint secretaries Qadeer Ahmed and Talat Mahmood.

Published in Dawn ,July 13th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play