KARACHI, Aug 11: A former Olympian, Saleem Nazim, on Thursday alleged that Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF)’s secretary Brig Musarrat Ullah Khan had violated the constitution by announcing the Super League programme without council’s approval.

The former PHF associate secretary said that Musarrat had taken arbitrary decision on Tuesday by announcing the league’s programme, teams and officials without consulting and approval of the PHF executive council.

“I urge the PHF president to take notice of this violation of constitution by the secretary. Super League is a drama and waste of money which could do no good to hockey,” Saleem said.

While Saleem has accused Musarrat of taking arbitrary decisions, interestingly, the secretary has been saying that he was not responsible for the decline of the sport during the past five or six years as all the decision were approved by the council in the past.

PHF had announced on Tuesday the schedule of the league along with teams and officials.

Saleem pointed out league had no competitive value as not a single prominent European player from top hockey nations the Netherlands, Germany, Spain or Australia had been invited, while those local players who were a spent force were being given a chance.

“Not a single well-known Asian player will be playing in the league leave alone any top European or Australian player. Inclusion of some discarded Indian players will not serve the cause,” he remarked.

Saleem contended PHF should have invited local youngsters instead of former players who had quit international hockey five to 10 years ago and discarded players which would be tantamount to discouraging the youth.

The former selector argued if Musarrat was bent on appointing hand-picked people that too without their consent as managers or coaches, then why PHF spent millions of rupees on sending coaches to attend coaches courses abroad.

“If Musarrat wants to appoint his favourites, then what was the logic of sending Ayaz Mahmood, Qamar Zia, Major Ayaz, Major Mukarram or Capt Nadeem and several others on training courses abroad,” he questioned.

He appealed to the Senate’s Standing Committee on Sports, National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Sports and the federal sports minister to probe into what he called the “drama” of Super League.