LAHORE: Former hockey Olympian Navid Alam on Tuesday submitted his reply to a three-member disciplinary committee of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) which is probing the allegations made by the former Director PHF Development and Domestic.

The Khyber Pakhtun­khwa Hockey Association secretary Zahir Shah is head of the committee. It is ironic that in the recent past, Navid himself was appointed as head of the disciplinary committee in a similar disciplinary case against Zahir.

It may be mentioned here that the PHF terminated Navid’s services as its Director Development and Domestic Hockey for issuing a press statement against the PHF in the wake of the poor performance of the national team in the Asian Games and further alleged that various districts have filed complaints against him.

In his reply, Navid pleaded that PHF secretary Shahbaz Senior had biased attitude against him because as chairman of the PHF disciplinary committee he had completed different inquiries against the secretary including that of corruption.

Navid pleaded that his termination was illegal and Shahbaz Senior had turned against him because he had raised objections over the way the secretary had made appointments in the finance and marketing departments. He also alleged that Shahbaz obliged his close friend Olympian Kamran Ashraf by appointing him as coach of the development squad which contributed nothing towards grooming or nuearthing fresh talent.

Navid alleged that huge amount of funds had been spent on the development squad which was sent to Canada and further alleged that the basic criteria set for applying visas to travel abroad was also not followed for the tour.

He said Shahbaz is personally defaming the national game by his suspicious activities and that Shahbaz provoked the players through Kamran to riot prior to the Asian Games, like he himself had done as player in the 1996 Olympics Games by revolting against the PHF.

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2018