LAHORE, April 24: The Federal Investigating Agency’s (FIA) Lahore department has summoned 12 hockey Olympians in connection with their allegations of human-trafficking against the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) officials levelled in a letter addressed to the prime minister last year.

According to sources, FIA Assistant Director Khurram Saeed Rana has issued the summons to the ex-Olympians under inquiry No. 476/12 dated April 13 and has asked them to appear on different dates, starting from April 18 and ending on April 30.

The Olympians, in a letter to the prime minister, had alleged that the PHF was involved in human smuggling besides highlighting the poor performances of the national team and suggesting some proposals for improvement of the team’s show.

In this case, the FIA has completed the investigation of the PHF records and found nothing wrong there, the sources said.

However, the sources further said the FIA had also found some of the PHF documents used in getting the visas of some foreign countries as fake and has launched an inquiry into it.

Besides the ex-Olympians, the FIA officer had also called Rana M. Nawaz, brother of ex-Olympian Mohammad Shahbaz, who has been allegedly involved in sending people abroad.

The entire case of human smuggling started when Nawaz was arrested on a complaint filed by one of the victims who had claimed that he paid Rs1.2 million to Nawaz to get the Canadian visa but he was betrayed in the end. PHF’s letter pads were used in the case but were later found as fake.

It may be mentioned here that after the allegations were raised in a joint letter from the ex-Olympians to the prime minister, the PHF had issued defamation notices to them while demanding an apology or filing of a defamation case.

However, while ex-Olympians refused to apologise, the PHF did not file any case of defamation in the court of law and it appeared that both the parties will settle their issues amicably.

The FIA, on the other hand, continued with its own investigation and thoroughly checked the records of the PHF before summoning the ex-Olympians.

According to sources, none of the ex-Olympians have appeared before the FIA so far. The first batch of the former players including Qamar Ibrahim, Ayaz Mehmood and Qamar Zia were summoned on April 18 but they failed to comply to the order.

Similarly, former hockey greats Samiullah and Islahuddin were to appear on April 19 while former goalie Saleem Sherwarni was to face the inquiry on April 20 but none of them could ensure their presence before the FIA. Three more players — Saleem Nazim, Tahir Zaman and Shahbaz Ahmad Senior — were set to appear on April 23 but did not turn up for the inquiry.

While Khalid Mehmood is to appear on April 30, former great Shahnaz Sheikh and Naveed Alam have been asked to appear either on April 24 or April 30. Also, Rana M Nawaz is to appear either on April 25th or 27th.

Moreover, Dawn further learnt that some of the Olympians had also written a letter to the FIA official, asking him to give details of the inquiry which could enable them to prepare their replies accordingly.

“I don’t know how many hockey Olympians were summoned in all, but I was asked to appear before the FIA Assistant Director on April 23. I then wrote a letter to the officer concerned to send me the exact list of allegations under which I am being summoned so that I could prepare my reply,” Saleem Nazim told Dawn.