KARACHI, Jan 25: Olympian winger Akhtar Ali will lead defending cham-pions National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) in the 59th National Hockey Championship which explodes into action at the Hockey Club of Pakistan from Thursday.

Other members of the team include Mazhar Abbas, Waqas Hasan (goalkeeper), Mohammad Ateeq, Kashif Shah, Mohammad Nawaz (full-backs), Kashif Javed, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Tauseeq Arshad, Sibtain Raza, Faisal Qadir (half-backs), Mohammad Taufiq, Yasir Bashir, Umar Bhutta, Mohammad Dilber, Mohammad Zubair, Arsalan Qadir, Ali Shan.

Anwar Farooqi is the manager of the team while Rana Mujahid Ali is the chief coach.

Meanwhile, International Abdul Haseem Khan will lead a 16-member Port Qasim Authority (PQA) team in the event.

PQA team comprises Abdul Haseem Khan (captain), Rashid Yaqoob, Shakeel Ahmed, Majid Hussain, Abubar, Kamran, Shahid Jamil, Mohammad Shahzaib, Mohammad Atif, Yasir Dilwar, Manzoor Hussain, Ali Azlan Khan, Mohammad Imran, Talha Tanvir Ghori and Owais Khan.

Habib Bank has also name its squad for the event.

The squad is: Imran Shah (captain) Mohammad Aqeel (goalkeepers), Mohammad Sohail, Ehsan Ahmed, Aamir Sultan, Rao Waheed, Mohammad Shoaib, Adnan Ahmed, Khurram Shahzad, M. Khaliq, Mohammad Sajid, Hafiz Sardar, Adeel Hussain, Qayyum Dogar, Shahbaz Ali, Nasir Shahzad, Mohammad Asif, Rizwan Khan and Ali Butt.—APP