KARACHI, April 9: Some blatant violations of rules by Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) stand to be exposed at Thursday’s Council and Congress meetings since the affiliation and playing rights of Port Qasim Authority (PQA) have been placed on top of the agenda despite department being active for a long time.

The Council and Congress will meet at the Hockey Club of Pakistan to discuss a number of issues but the proposal and ‘expected’ approval of PQA’s affiliation and/or playing rights is the most conspicuous one on the agenda.

PQA, who made their “debut” at last year’s President Gold Cup, were not allowed to participate in the National Championship in 2006 by the former PHF secretary Akhtarul Islam as the department did not have the NOC from the departments whose players were recruited by the PQA team.

Ironically, the present PHF secretary Khalid Mahmood was clueless about the status of PQA’s playing rights when he was asked during the President’s Gold Cup. But at the same time the department was allowed to play at the national level tournament.

However, it was Akhtar who was responsible for creating the mess as PQA could not have got the affiliation or the playing rights since it required proposal by the Council and an approval from the Congress. But before the April 2 PHF elections last year, the Congress last met way back in Dec 28, 2004, while at the April polls the Congress had met first before the Council meeting.

Interestingly, while now the PHF has put the matter on its meetings’ agenda, PQA has already featured in the national championship.

Another amusing point on the agenda is the affiliation and/or playing rights for Higher Education Commission (HEC), although the department is one of the five whose affiliation and playing rights will be proposed to be withdrawn. Other departments whose affiliation or playing rights will be proposed by the Council to be cancelled are PTCL, ABL, UBL and Azad Jammu and Kashmir probably because either the departments have abolished their teams or have failed to take part in the major events.

While Pakistan senior team has been giving pathetic performances of late, the PHF accounts show a huge amount of Rs61.4 million as spent during 2006 and 2007 while for the junior team Rs19.2 million were doled out despite their ever-declining show.

According to the budget estimates for 2008, Rs40 million would be needed for this year’s senior team activity despite its horrific showings since April 2007, while Rs15 million are needed on the junior team activities.

The budget estimate says that Rs 205.025 million would be the expected total income during the year while expenses worth Rs221.825 million will be incurred, resulting in a shortfall of Rs16.8 million.

The strange ways of PHF are evident from the fact that it has continued to send “favourites” to offshore tours as “officials” despite the expected huge budget deficit.

The Council will also propose amendments to constitution for reducing the numbers of Congress members, abrogation of Council, replacing it with the Executive Board.

PHF chief Zafarullah Jamali had described utilisation of funds by previous officials as a “waste or a big question mark” at the last Council meeting before ordering a thorough probe into the accounts.

He had given Rs150 million grant to the PHF during his premiership days but was surprised to know at the time of his appointment as federation chief that it was facing a huge deficit.

Several financial irregularities were pointed out by Council member Zahir Shah at the last meeting but the outcome of the probe is yet to see the light of the day.