AFTER Pakistan’s poor performance at the Tokyo Olympics, the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) leadership is being held responsible for the disaster both by the public and the government. After all, the POA has been under the leadership of an individual for the last 17 years during which Pakistan has returned without a medal from all the four Olympics held in this time.

While the criticism of POA is logical, I wonder why the role of various sports federations is not under scrutiny. Let us pick the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF), because it is supposed to look after the health and wellbeing of our national game. What about the tenure of the PHF president who has been at the helm of national hockey affairs for long?

We won three golds, three silvers as well as two bronze medals in hockey at the Olympics. However, during the tenure of incumbent PHF president, Pakistan has dropped to 18th in world rankings. It was 10th when he had assumed office five years ago. Owing to this decline, Pakistan for the second time in its history failed to qualify for the Olympic hockey competition, missing this prestigious multi-sport event in Tokyo. At the last World Cup in 2018, Pakistan had finished 12th; its worst-ever finish. Besides, Pakistan’s junior hockey team failed to qualify for the Youth Olympics for the first time.

Regarding the removal of the POA chief, some argue that the government cannot interfere in POA affairs as it is answerable only to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which might actually be the case. But in case of the PHF, there is no such condition, and the prime minister, in his capacity as the patron-in-chief of the federation, has the authority to remove its president and replace him by some result-oriented and sincere person.

This must be done if we are serious in reviving our national game, which has brought so many laurels for us.

Ijaz Chaudhry
Lahore

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2021