LAHORE: The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has been cold-shouldered by two provinces and received no response from the other two regarding the resumption of hockey activities across the country, which are currently suspended due to Covid-19 pandemic.

Secretary PHF Asif Bajwa told Dawn that he had asked for permission from the four provincial governments as the federation had planned to resume the hockey activities later this month.

“The Balochistan government has refused to entertain the request, saying there is complete ban on sporting activities in the province and the Punjab government has sought some time for the confirmation. Whereas both Sindh and KP have not responded yet,” the secretary said.

Bajwa said he has written a letter to the Inter-provincial Coordination ministry, Islamabad asking for further guidelines as it won’t be possible to resume the hockey activities without the government’s approval.

Interestingly, federal planning minister Asad Umar had announced last month that the ban would remain on three sports — rugby, wrestling and kabaddi, while the remaining sports will be allowed under the SOPs.

But surprisingly, neither the IPC nor the provincial governments followed those orders in letter and spirit. The IPC, under which all the sporting activities fall, issued SOPs for sports on Aug 11, allowing few sports like jogging, badminton, tennis and other low-risk sports.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2020