KARACHI, April 7 Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), Habib Bank Limited (HBL) and Port Qasim Authority (PQA) registered wins in the 57th National Hockey Championship at the Hockey Club of Pakistan on Wednesday.

The first match between PIA and Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) saw the former edging past the latter 4-3. PIA took the lead through a field goal scored by Mahmood Ali in the seventh minute which SSGC equalised in the 17th minute through Ishtiaq's individual effort followed by Shakeel Abbasi (21st min) and Saleem Khalid (27th min) adding two more to get SSGC ahead by 3-1 at halftime.

But PIA was brought out of difficulties in the second half by Kashif Ali who scored a hat-trick by utilizing two penalty strokes (48th and 65th mins) and one penalty-corner (52nd min).

In the second match, HBL beat Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) 3-0. The goals were scored by Rana Zubair (13th and 29th mins) and Shahbaz Ali (47th min) by converting penalty-corners.

The day's last match saw PQA beating Pakistan Air Force (PAF) 3-1. Hanif Shahzad converted two penalty corners (sixth and 59th mins) while Kashif Jawad added another in the 69th minute for PQA. PAF's lone goal was scored by Imran Ali in the 10th minute.

The day also experienced its share of controversies when two senior players Olympian Abbas Haider (SSGC) and Yasir Islam (PIA) were awarded one-match suspensions.

Meanwhile, Wapda's manager Mirza Waheed Baig was also suspended by Tournament Director Olympian Iftikhar Syed for arguing with the umpires and giving out unnecessary statements against the tournament management to the media. Wapda's Sajjad Anwar was also slapped with a two-match suspension.

Thursday's fixtures PAF v Army; Wapda v KESC; NBP v Navy.