LAHORE: To one’s utter surprise, it has emerged that the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination is totally unaware whether the Interior Mini­stry has issued the NOC to the PHF to send the national team to India for the Asian Cham­pions Trophy being held in Chennai from Aug 3-12.

With just six days left be­f­ore the national squad is scheduled to lea­v­e for India, the PHF it seems has no clue about the NOC for the visit.

“We have received the [Indian] visas for the nati­onal team and now we are waiting for the NOC from the Interior Ministry,” PHF secretary Haider Hus­sain told Dawn.

However, when contacted, an Interior Ministry official confirmed to Dawn the NOC had already been issued on July 10 which should have been received by the IPC Ministry.

Meanwhile, Federal Min­i­ster for IPC Ehsan-ur-Rehman Mazari told Dawn that the NOC would be received by Wednesday, adding his staff was dealing with the matter.

But when asked if the Interior Ministry had issued the NOC on July 10, the IPC minister said he hoped the NOC would be received by Wednesday and the team would go to India as per the schedule.

More interestingly, acco­rding to the correspondence between the Interior Ministry and the IPC Ministry over the issue of NOC, the first letter from the latter was sent to the former on June 9. In resp­onse, the Interior Ministry issued the NOC on July 10 through a letter.

However, the IPC Mini­stry again sent a similar letter to the Interior Min­istry on July 21, seeking the NOC, which the Interior Ministry had already issued (on July 10).

If this was not enough, the IPC Ministry after a query from Dawn again sent a reminder regarding the NOC to the Interior Ministry on Tuesday.

However, the Interior Ministry letter issued on July 10, a copy of which is with Dawn, states, “Kindly refer to the Ministry of IPC OM.No.2-3/2017-IPC (S-I) dated 9-6-2023 on the subject. This [Interior] Minis­try has no objection to the participation of Pakistan’s hockey team in the Asian Champions Trophy in Che­nnai from Aug 3 to 12.”

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2023