ISLAMABAD: A Senate sub-committee on Inter-provincial Coordination (IPC) on Thursday expressed its ire over Pakistan’s pathetic performance in hockey, the country’s national game, during the last decade or so.

The sub-committee meeting was held here at the Parliament House with Senator Irfan Siddiqui in the chair.

Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) treasurer Mohammad Ikhlaq Usmani briefed the committee on the current state of affairs of the game in the country.

The committee was informed that Pakistan last qualified for any major international hockey event back in 2012. There is no full time coach available for the national team while coaches are hired on part-time basis who only attend training camps just before the any event, the federation official regretted.

The committee was told that the national team’s current world ranking is 17 and despite playing qualifying rounds during the last 10 years, they could not qualify for any top-level international event.

The PHF official cited the lack of funds as one of the reasons behind Pakistan’s alarming slide in world rankings.

Convener of the committee Senator Irfan lamented the role played by the PHF and the government in this regard.

“Hockey is our national sport, it used to be our pride. Such is the decline of sports in the country that we cannot even quality for big events let alone winning any. Past excuses will not be tolerated any further,” he said.

Earlier, the committee discussed non response of sports federations, as the committee was told that out of total 41, only three federations submitted their reply in response to the questions asked by the committee.

The sub-committee sought details of the working of all federal sports organisations, funds they received and their utilisation and review their constitution under which these have been established.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Sports Board director general retired Col Asif Zaman informed the committee that there are 41 sports federations affiliated with PSB. All the federations were contacted and information was sought from them as per the prescribed format but only three federations submitted their response, he said.

The convener of the committee questioned why these federations are not responding to the IPC Ministry and the PSB.

“If the federations come directly under the regulatory control of the PSB and the Ministry then action should be taken against those federations that do not respond,” remarked Senator Irfan.

Responding to this, Col Asif said, “We can cancel their affiliation.”

He further informed the committee that these federations will be held accountable and answerable once the new proposed sports policy is enforced.

Senator Rana Maqbool Ahmed was of the view that there must be some provisions and rules in the current constitution to hold them accountable.

Senator Irfan directed the officials concerned to present a detailed report in the next meeting, clearly showing which sports federations were contacted and which of them responded and what action was taken against the ones which did not respond.

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2021