In Pakistan`s male-dominated society, women seldom get to take part in sports, despite the fact that they constitute half the country`s population.

But there is one sport that Pakistani women have been playing for some time, and that`s hockey.

It was in the `80s that the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) started promoting women`s hockey when Brig (retd) Manzoor Hussain Atif was secretary PHF. In 1984 and 1985, Malaysian and Chinese teams toured Pakistan and played quite a few matches, while Ireland`s team played a one-off match against Pakistan at the Hockey Club, Karachi. One witnessed a lot of women`s hockey activities in those days as girls showed a keen interest in the game.

But women`s hockey received a setback when Gen Ziaul Haq ordered the cancellation of the Pakistani team`s tour of Japan on the eve of their departure. Women`s hockey suffered heavily and many girls left the game. Back then there used to be national hockey championships and other tournaments for women, but it could not recover from the cancellation of the Japan tour.

Another great injustice was meted out to women`s hockey when the Pakistani team was not given the go ahead by Islamabad to compete in the 2006 Doha Asian Games. The team merited participation in the Games as it had successfully taken part in the Singapore qualifying round tournament.

Some believe the Sports Ministry was of the view that the women`s hockey team was a weak unit. But Pakistan competed in other 21 events and the outcome was humiliating, because it managed to win only four medals -- no gold, one silver and three bronze. This indicates the biased attitude of Islamabad`s sports bureaucracy towards women`s hockey.

Now the PHF, headed by former Olympian Qasim Zia, has ensured Pakistan`s participation in the nine-nation Asian junior (Under-21) Hockey Championship, scheduled in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur from Dec 13.

The 18-member Pakistani team, to be led by full-back Sehrish Ghumman, was announced a couple of weeks ago by chairman selection committee Hasan Sardar, after watching 32 Under-21 girls during a one-day trial session at the Karachi Hockey Club of Pakistan. Other selectors who watched the trial were Mohammad Shafiq, Farhat Khan and Khalid Bashir.

The selected squad has gone through hard training under the supervision of coach Akhlaq Ahmed. Women`s wing secretary of the PHF, Perveen Gill, is the team manager.

The squad`s fitness was given prime importance during the training camp.

The duration of training was pretty short, a fact endorsed by Hasan Sardar. In the future, four to six weeks` training will be required for building a good combination, he said.

One cannot expect miracles from the team during the Kuala Lumpur tournament but its participation will certainly help in gaining valuable experience. Pakistan has been placed in a strong five-team Pool A, consisting of China, Japan, Malaysia and Thailand. Pool B includes, South Korea, India, Singapore and Chinese Taipei.

Two teams from each pool will qualify for the semifinal round. Strong contenders from Pool A are China and Japan, while from Pool B, S. Korea and India are better teams.

The Kuala Lumpur tournament is also a qualifying round for the next year`s Under-21 Women World Cup.