KARACHI, June 16: Objections by team officials over violation of rules continued on Saturday at the President’s Gold Cup hockey as HBL lodged a strong protest against Steel Mills for fielding two KESC players and another from Police against them.

“Irfan Ali and Waseem Ahmad are both KESC team members and have received salary of May 2007 from their department. They have contracts with KESC till December 2007. According to PHF rules, they can’t play from any department with No Objection Certificates (NOCs) from their present department.

“Besides, Shahid Waseem is a permanent employee of Police department but is playing for Steel Mills. We protest against Steel Mills for including these players in a match against HBL and request for disciplinary action against Steel Mills for violating the PHF constitution,” wrote HBL team manager Waheed Mirza to tournament director.

Tournament director Shamsuz Zaman said he had asked Steel Mills to provide proof that the players were their employees.

“The organising secretary Gulfaraz (Ahmad) tried to justify the violations by saying where rules and laws are being implemented in this country?” the HBL official said, while adding that he exchanged hot words with the organising secretary who was not happy at the protests from HBL on violation of rules.

The HBL official said tournament director had also asked him to provide proof that the players mentioned in written protest belonged to KESC and not Steel Mills.

“I have told tournament director in clear terms that we have lodged protest and now it is Steel Mills responsibility to provide proof in their defence.”

HBL had also protested against Port Qasim Authority (PQA) for fielding a Wapda player, Atif Yaqoob, in Thursday’s quarter-final.

KESC had also raised objections on the inclusion of Irfan and Waseem in Steel Mills team without the NOCs and legal transfer.

KESC coach Mohammad Farooq had said four players —Rashid Ali, Yasir Dilawar, Shahzad Hanif and Fareed Ahmad — had resigned recently but played for PQA without NOCs from KESC.

While playing without legal transfer from one department to another is a violation of the PHF constitution, players can switch over to other department only in the months of January and July.

Tournament director says that NBP and SSGC team managers had confirmed that they had given NOC’s to their players who represented PQA, but failed to come up with a convincing answer when asked why he didn’t ask PQA officials to provide the NOCs.

The tournament director had also failed to provide copies of NOCs from PQA or minutes of PHF Congress meeting, mentioning that PQA had been given playing rights.

Steel Mills also came into limelight during national championship in March when Wapda accused them of fielding their players who they claimed were on their payroll.