KARACHI, Jan 29: PIA lifted All-Pakistan departmental hockey championship title after a 2-1 victory over Wapda at Hockey Club of Pakistan on Sunday. Starting the first half aggressively, PIA opened the scoring in the 17th minute when Kamran Ashraf slotted home past Wapda goalkeeper Amanullah on a short corner.

Shafqat Malik doubled PIA’s ascendancy with a perfect indirect drill in the 26th minute.

PIA rattled their opponents as Wapda lacked firepower as they sorely missed Rehan Butt, Mudassir Ali Khan, Imran Khan and Shabbir Hussain, which put aging PIA goalkeeper Ahmad Alam and the defences at ease, while national carrier’s frontrunners stepped up the pressure.

Wapda hardly made a serious attempt in the first half that was dominated by PIA whose strike force never let the opposition settled down non-stop attacks. It was constant threatening moves throughout first half which made unnerved and forced Wapda to buckle under.

It was only after re-start that Wapda showed some resilience and fought back to reduce the margin coming from two goal down.

Wapda were denied by Ahmad with a save on the 42nd minute penalty corner, rushing out from his line. PIA were lucky when the veteran Ahmad was beaten all ends up the next minute when Wapda’s Zakirullah missed the target from right and rattled the upright.

Wapda strikers made weaving runs in the second session to help their side stage a comeback like they did against in Saturday’s the semifinal against Pakistan Steel.

Back-to-back attacks resulted in Wapda reducing the margin in the 44th minute through an opportunist strike by Zakir past Ahmad who tried to stop the goal-bound effort with his trademark dash-and-fall action while ball went past him.

Dominating the proceedings and keeping PIA under a series of attacks, Wapda came near equalising two minute later only to see Waqas Sharif missing a golden opportunity.

It was Wapda’s lack of finishing and not PIA’s solid defence which let the losers down. Zakir was in a perfect position to scoop the ball over Ahmad but instead back-passed, giving a PIA defender ample time to clear the danger.

Pakistan Army outplayed Pakistan Steel 3-1 in the third place playoff.

The soldiers opened the scoring with an Asif Jahangir goal in the 16th minute and doubled the lead through Mohammad Saleem in the 30th minute.

Pakistan Steel netted consolation goal when Kashif Ali came into action in the 41st minute. Army sealed the fate of the match with a 61st-minute penalty corner conversion through Mohammad Imran.