LAHORE: Former Olympian Danish Kaleem on Wednesday severely criticised the recently-held elections of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF), calling the exercise bogus and a violation of fair-game play.

“All the complaints submitted by various districts of the country against the election process have remained unheard by PHF election commissioner Chaudhry Mohammad Riaz [yet],” Danish alleged while addressing a press conference here.

Danish said 19 districts across the country, including 14 from Punjab, were in contact with him complaining against the said elections.

“Some districts in Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan are also raising their voice against the bogus elections in which retired Brig Sajjad Khokhar and Shahbaz Ahmed Senior were again elected in Islamabad,” he told reporters.

Danish also handed over the list of the districts from across the country, which he said were not satisfied with the election process. Among them were Sahiwal (Danish’s home district), Khanewal, Sheikhupura, Multan, Vehari, Bhakhar, Khushab, Mandi Bahauddin, Islamabad, Bahawalnagar, Kasur, Bahawalpur, Jhang, Rawalpindi, Karachi, Bannu, Mardan, Quetta and Ludhar.

“Not even a single hearing was held by election commissioner on our appeals against the [PHF] elections, and this is a proof how bogus the election process was,” a disgruntled-looking Danish said.

He said despite the fact that the PHF officials -- president retired Brig Sajjad Khokhar and secretary Shahbaz Ahmed Senior -- had completed their last term in November 2017, they continued to work in the PHF, which he termed illegal.

Moreover, the same officials continued their work issuing notifications while the election commissioner was there.

“The same officials [retired Brig Sajjad and Shahbaz] have again been elected without leaving their offices for even one day; this never happened in the PHF history,” he lamented.

Danish said his opponents were blaming him as to how he (Danish) while living in Lahore could represent Sahiwal.

“For their information for the last two and a half years, secretary Shahbaz Senior has been representing Muzaffargarh while living in Islamabad. Similarly, PHF treasurer Ikhlaq Usmani is from Rawalpindi/Islamabad but now he represents Jhelum. The law should be same for all; Ikhlaq and Shahbaz are no exceptions,” he said.

He said his opponents were also maintaining that coaches should not contest the elections, Danish asked then in which capacity Kamran Ashraf and Qamar Ibraheem -- coach and manager of Pakistan’s junior team -- had contested the PHF elections from their respective districts.

Danish is a coach of the Dar Hockey Academy (Lahore) which has produced a number of players for national senior and junior teams.

“The PHF is nothing but a ‘family federation’ and the situation explicitly indicates that there is no law to lead the federation,” Danish regretted.

When reminded that Olympian Naveed Alam had moved the Lahore High Court against the 2008 PHF elections but that case was still pending, Danish reckoned the courts were now working faster in giving decisions. “All the districts would get justice, if the PHF does not give any relief.

“The PHF election commissioner should give all the aggrieved districts at least one chance to plead their cases,” Danish stated.

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2018