KARACHI, Feb 23: Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) secretary received $41,450 as daily allowance by making no less than 34 "official trips" abroad during last five years.

This was disclosed by secretary PHF Brig Musarrat Ullah Khan after being asked by the Senate's Standing Committee on Sports during grilling on Jan 15.The amount is equivalent to Rs2,445,550.

Although the PHF has provided the details of the tours and break-up of the amount received by the secretary, the reply is vague as it is not clear on what basis the official received the amount.

In his reply, Musarrat has stated that as per PHF financial rules duly approved by the Council and Congress, the officials are entitled to receive daily allowance while on offshore tours from one day before and a day after the official trip.

The PHF's criteria for the daily allowance to the officials is that (a) $150 daily should be given if lodging and boarding is not provided, (b) $120 be given if only lodging is arranged, and (c) $80 should be disbursed in case lodging and boarding is provided.

The official had no satisfactory reply when asked by Senate through a questionnaire the reason he made so many tours abroad despite the presence of team manager and coaches.

"It has been a normal/regular practice in PHF since its inception that either secretary or president accompanies the team on certain important foreign visits. On all the foreign visits, the secretary travelled with the approval of president PHF," Musarrat gave an explanation without dwelling upon what good could be achieved by continuing such a practice.

But the PHF secretary did not mention the fact that president or secretary's tours are not obligatory. Instead he termed the tours of the officials as "incentives" for their work at the grassroots level and in acknowledgement of their "services." However, he failed to justify on what basis he travelled abroad since the entire hockey structure at grassroots level is in a shambles since he took charge. Although the decline of junior hockey started before the present secretary took over on July 5, 2000, youth hockey has been virtually non-existent during his tenure.

The junior side finished a poor fifth place at Junior Asia Cup in 2000. The new under-21 had been formed hardly a couple of years ago, although the Junior World Cup is scheduled to be organized from June 29 in Rotterdam with the Pakistan squad still to be finalized.

Last April, U-21 were thrashed by India 5-2 in the Junior Asia Cup final - an event participated mostly by underdogs. At the moment, there are no under-14, under-16 or under-18 squads.

According to the documents, while the PHF secretary made 16 trips abroad to attend either International Hockey Federation (FIH) or Asian Hockey Federation (AHF) meetings, he went on offshore tours 18 times as PHF official.

The official travelled seven times without any valid reason in 2000-2001 when PHF was in dire financial straits having mere Rs661,283 in its kitty which even forced PHF officials to seek financial help from Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in 2000 to send the team for Sydney Olympics. Quite a few trips by the secretary were nothing but sightseeing since the tournaments he watched were either invitational events or training tours.

Pre-Olympic tour to New Zealand in 2000, Prime Minister's Gold Cup in Dhaka which was gathering of minnows except India, European tour including Spain, Germany, the Netherlands in 2001, trip to Spain (Test series), Manchester Commonwealth Games in 2002, tour of Egypt along with junior side in 2003 and the Indian tour last year, are few examples where Musarrat's presence at the venues could not be justified. The $41,450 amount is only the daily allowance, while expenditure on air tickets for 34 trips is yet to be known.