LAHORE: The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) on Monday decided to place all the financial accounts on its official website after every three months in order to keep the financial matters of the federation crystal clear.

Asif Bajwa, the newly-elected PHF secretary, after getting approval of his appointment from the executive board here on Monday said the decision to place the accounts on the PHF website had been taken to satisfy some of the critics of the federation who he said were “more interested in the matters concerning wrongdoing in PHF’s financial affairs, and less interested to talk about the game’s decline in the country”.

Bajwa dded, “By displaying the financial accounts on the PHF website, hopefully, all the stakeholders will have their confidence in the PHF.”

Bajwa again invited all the former Olympians of the country to come forward and join hands to bring back the game of hockey on right track instead of criticising the federation. “All Olympians should open their hearts just for the betterment of the game,” he said.

Bajwa, who was appointed as secretary in place of Shahbaz Ahmed Senior who left the post in controversial circumstances last week, said 14 members of the executive board attended Monday’s meeting. A representative from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa tabled the name of Bajwa as the next PHF secretary while a representative from Sindh endorsed the name.

Earlier this month, while PHF president retired Brig Sajjad Khokhar announced that Shahbaz had resigned as secretary and that he had appointed Bajwa in his place. However, the next day Shahbaz expressed his ignorance about the resignation, denying that he had resigned.

Bajwa said club hockey would be revived across the country, underlining that it was the basic platform for producing good-quality hockey players for the national team.

According to the secretary, the dates for the national hockey championship would be announced after Eid-ul-Fitr. Bajwa also claimed that professional hockey league — which was a brainchild of Shahbaz Senior but he failed to organise it — would also be held.

Promising that soon Pakistan would regain its glory in international hockey, the PHF secretary said in the first phase the country would reach top ten in a year’s time and then make top four in three to four years.

To a question, Bajwa said the accountability of former PHF officials would continue through the departments concerned.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2019