PESHAWAR, Dec 22: The Peshawar senior civil judge, Ihsanullah Mahsud, has stayed the elections of the NWFP Hockey Association and suspended the directives of Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) regarding scrutiny of hockey clubs in the province.

The court also put on notice the federal secretary sports and culture, the PHF’s president, Tariq Kirmani, secretary general, Brig (retd) Mussaratullah Khan, and the provincial coordinator for scrutiny, Malik Naveed, who is also the director of the Federal Investigation Agency, NWFP.

The court fixed Jan 5 for next hearing of the plaint filed by secretary general of the Peshawar District Hockey Association (PDHA), Hidayatullah Khan.

The judge ordered that the directives issued by the secretary general for conducting scrutiny of the hockey clubs and the election schedule issued on Dec 8 by Malik Naveed should remain suspended till next order.

The plaintiff’s counsel argued that the directives issued by the PHF’s secretary general for conducting scrutiny of the hockey clubs in the province was against the constitution of the PHF.

He further stated that the scrutiny coordinator had overstepped his powers during the scrutiny.

He contended that even in the impugned directives the secretary general had pointed out that during the scrutiny a new club could be registered for a probation period of one year and would not be entitled to vote.

However, he added that the directives were violated and even new members had been given right to vote.

The plaintiff requested the court to stay the ongoing scrutiny process. He stated that Malik Naveed had also issued election schedule on Dec 8, which was also violation of the PHF constitution.

He added that the coordinator had no authority to issue the schedule.