LAHORE: The Pakis­tan Hockey Federa­tion (PHF) has distanced itself from the financial matters of the Prime Minister Talent Hunt Programme, and is only willing to provide technical assistance in exploring the talent through this programme.

According to a press rele­ase issued on Friday, PHF secretary Haider Hus­s­ain said the progra­mme, which stopped in Balochis­tan after the death of some officials in an accident last year, had resumed.

“[But] the HEC is responsible to spend funds on the [said] programme for which the PHF will only provide technical assistance,” Haider said.

Technical officials of the Balochistan Hockey Asso­ciation — Mujahid Islam Butt, Mir Ali Kurd, Abdul Raheem Durrani and Imtiaz Shah — died in a road accident last October while travelling from Khu­z­dar to Quetta after compl­eting the talent hunt there.

Interestingly PM Sheh­baz Sharif, whose government is not directly supporting the PHF financially, last year allocated a huge amount of Rs920 million for the PM Talent Hunt Programme aimed at exploring budding hockey players across the country.

However, no details about the budget of the programme were shared public through the media.

According to sources, the PHF in order to save its skin had decided to keep away from the financial matters of the programme.

Meanwhile according to the PHF press release, the families of the deceased officials would be compensated by the government.

Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2023