LAHORE, Dec 28: Olympian Munir Dar said on Tuesday Pakistan hockey team's poor performance was because of mismanagement on the part of Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF).

The performance of the hockey team was discussed at the general council meeting of the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) held on Tuesday.

Munir, a member of POA general council, said at the meeting that it was wrong planning by the PHF because of which Pakistan lost at Athens Olympics by playing Spain in a practice game before the important event.

The team failed to give positive results at Lahore's Champions Trophy although India and Germany had fielded young teams, while Olympic champions Australia did not take part.

Munir criticised PHF for spending huge amount of valuable foreign exchange by paying foreign coach Roelant Oltmans and added the decision of hiring a foreigner was part of PHF's mismanagement.

The meeting, which decided the tentative Pakistan contingent for the April's Islamic Games in Jeddah, was chaired by POA president Lt-Gen Arif Hasan but the media was not invited.

The house elected Maj Afzal, the secretary of Pakistan Volleyball Federation (PVF), new treasurer of POA. The post was lying vacant since the POA elections were held in March this year. However, the house was divided on the election of Maj Afzal when an unofficial meeting was held on Monday before the official meeting on Tuesday.

Lt-Gen Arif told Dawn he would form a committee to discuss the elections of the Pakistan Swimming Federation (PSF) held early this month after which the federation was split into two factions. He said that fresh elections might be held to resolve the issue.

When pointed out that international swimming body had accepted one of the groups headed by Younis Shafiq after controversial elections, the president said POA's recognition was prime importance.

He brushed aside reports that POA office would be shifted to Islamabad from Lahore. He said he would appoint an official spokesman of the POA for better relationship with the media.