LAHORE: Without Lahore District, the elections of the Punjab Hockey Association (PHA) are being held here on Wednesday.

The elections are being held at Lahore Garrison Club, which is located far away from the offices of the PHA in the National Hockey Stadium, perhaps to avoid any protest from the clubs of the Lahore District.

According to a handwritten press release, the affected clubs is going to stage a protest in front of the Pakistan Hockey Federation on Wednesday.

Dawn also learnt that some clubs had also sought stay-order against their respective district elections raising concern over the scrutiny process. Prominent among them are Rawalpindi, Gujranwala and Dera Ghazi Khan.

The election commission scrutinised the clubs affiliated with Lahore District on Sunday. Overall, 37 clubs appeared in the scrutiny held at the Johar Town Hockey Stadium. But the EC cleared only 13 of them while raising objections over the documents of the remaining 24 clubs amid protest by those clubs.

Later, the EC gave some time to these clubs to complete the documents.

Though four more clubs have been cleared after scrutiny, still the EC kept pending the elections of Lahore District and is set to hold the PHA elections today.

It may be mentioned here that the PHF is holding the elections from district to national level after rejecting the four-member committee formed by the Pakistan Sports Board to conduct the elections, terming the move as interference by the government in PHF affairs.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2022