YEARENDER: Controversies and misfortunes marred Pakistan hockey in 2006
THE year 2006 proved to be a nightmare for Pakistan hockey, not just on the field but off it too. It was, indeed, a dark chapter in country’s otherwise glorious history of the game, which finally came to an end with the change of guard.
While it was yet another dismal year insofar the performance of the national team is concerned, the ouster of Pakistan Hockey Federation’s (PHF) controversial secretary Brig Musarrat Ullah Khan was the highlight of the year.
Musarrat’s removal from the post did not come as a surprise to the followers of the game since it was very much on cards and he had already promised to “step down” during the year after writing on the wall became all too apparent.
A series of grilling sessions by the Senate, the human trafficking scandal and Pakistan’s fifth place finish in Terrassa Champions Trophy finally saw the brigadier stepping down on July 19 after a disastrous, seven-year-long tenure.
But the then PHF chief Tariq Kirmani, who took charge on Jan 5, 2005 after Gen Aziz Khan’s exit, continued to run the game in a strange manner by asking Musarrat to continue until World Cup in September. However, Kirmani eventually changed his plans — for obvious reasons — and appointed one of Musarrat’s close aides and selector Akhtarul Islam as the new secretary on July 31.
To recollect the chain of events in the year, Musarrat was in hot soup right from the beginning of 2006 when it was revealed on Jan 8 that he had dubbed the grilling session from the Senate Committee on Sports as “sinister moves by miscreants.” He even requested Kirmani through a letter to thwart future meetings of the Senate Committee by involving the prime minister. The disclosure resulted in Senators admonishing the secretary the very next day.
Musarrat was in further trouble following the abrupt resignation of PHF treasurer Iqbal Bali who quit in protest in January over irregularities committed in district association elections, accusing the secretary of forcing him out of polls and playing dirty politics.
Later in the year, Pakistan hockey was rocked by another resignation, this time from PHF chief Kirmani on Aug 22, which was believed to be a sacking by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz — the patron-in-chief of Pakistan hockey.
Kirmani was then replaced by the seasoned Zafarullah Jamali — a former prime minister and well-known hockey figure — who had also served as chief selector at one time.
Jamali’s appointment brought yet another resignation, that of PHF director marketing Naveed Haider, who also opted for a vanishing act after Jamali ordered a three-year audit report of the PHF accounts.
On the field too, things never really looked up for Pakistan hockey. To begin with, temperamental midfielder Mohammad Saqlain was slapped a three-match ban and a 1000-euro fine by International Hockey Federation (FIH) Judicial Commission for hitting Australia’s Craig Victory which caused serious injuries to the player at 2005 Hamburg Masters.
But despite his penchant for attracting controversies, Saqlain was tipped to walk away with PHF’s blue-eyed-boy-of-the-year award. Musarrat vowed to defend him by challenging the FIH ban at Lausanne-based International Olympic Committee’s Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in December 2005. The CAS upheld the ban in April 2006 and PHF were asked to pay FIH Judicial Commission 1000 euro in damages.
PHF then amazed everyone by including Saqlain in the Terrassa Champions Trophy squad where he obviously missed three games since he was serving the ban which came into effect just then. Pakistan finished a poor fifth in Terrasa and it was later revealed that a group of senior players had revolted against coach Asif Bajwa for not favouring Saqlain for captaincy. Bajwa was immediately shown the door after the Spain event.
It was at this juncture that the new PHF regime took over with former Olympian Akhtar-ul-Islam taking over from the notorious Brigadier Musarrat.
Another former Olympian Shahnaz Shaikh was reappointed to manage the Pakistan outfit in the World Cup at Monchengladbach, Germany. Things, however, didn’t change drastically for Saqlain who was once again named in the World Cup squad despite a series of ugly incidents to his name.
It is no secret that Shahnaz, who took over only a few weeks before the mega event, has been at loggerheads with Saqlain during all his previous tenures but why did he accept Saqlain in the squad remains a mystery to date.
The year 2006 will also be remembered as the year of “indisciplined players” in the annals of Pakistan hockey. The PHF appeared hell-bent on encouraging player power and recalled Sohail Abbas and Waseem Ahmad from retirement which they had announced in December 2004. The pair which had never paid any heed to PHF calls during the two years, came out of hibernation in what they said was “national interest”. Their decision, however, failed to boost Pakistan in World Cup and it finished a pathetic sixth in Germany.
Not willing to learn any lessons from the failure, the Akhtar-led PHF continued with their pampering of Saqlain, Sohail, Waseem and Company by calling them up yet again - this time for December’s Asian Games in the Qatari capital of Doha. PHF, however, ended up eating a humble pie when all five — Saqlain, Sohail, Waseem, Ghazanfar Ali and Dilawar Hussain — snubbed the federation’s offer to join the national training camp and opted to play in the foreign leagues instead.
In a face-saving effort Jamali, having been pushed to the limits, finally announced at a press conference that all the five players would never be able to find a place in the national team — or not during his tenure at the helm at least.
Not much was expected by the new-look Doha-bound squad under the captaincy of Rehan Butt and all Pakistan could achieve was a bronze at the Asiad after losing to rank outsiders China 2-1 in their crunch pool game.
The result was, indeed, shocking since China have never won any hockey medal in the history of Asian Games and were beaten by tennis scores by Pakistan only a few years ago at home.
A silver medal at Melbourne’s Commonwealth Games was the best Pakistan could achieve in 2006, a tournament which had only Australia as the other notable team.
At the provincial level too, the controversies and intrigues marred the game of hockey as Musarrat continued with his dirty tricks.
The much-awaited Karachi Hockey Association (KHA) elections were postponed on Jan 6 amid chaotic scenes and charges of attempted rigging were levelled by secretary Gulfaraz Ahmad who urged the PHF to sack secretary scrutiny committee Iftikhar Syed and director domestic hockey Muhammad Shafiq.
On Jan 24, KHA polls ended with both rival factions being elected to run the affairs for two years each but the power struggle continued. On Feb 15, Gulfaraz claimed that the then inter-club championship being organised by his rival group, had no official status and was illegal.
Gulfaraz-led group was, however, temporarily given the right to hold activity by Sindh High Court which refrained PHF and its secretary Akhtar from interfering into the KHA affairs. Eventually, Jamali had to ‘settle’ the issue by naming an unknown Munawwar Baseer as KHA president and Gulfaraz as secretary.
Amongs other notable events, the infamous director domestic hockey South, Shafique as well as director North, M. Ikhlaq Usmani and director development, Lt-Col Zafar Ali Khan were removed from their posts during 2006 while the “advisory board” was also abolished.
Jamali also sacked junior team coach Manzoor Hussain to accommodate his old time buddy Jahangir Butt. Also, Mansoor Masood Khan, a little-known hockey official and a friend of Musarrat and Akhtar, was nominated for the FIH marketing committee in a case of blatant favouritsm.
GCU facing tough challenges
Dr Arif Zaidi, the newly-appointed vice-chancellor, is struggling hard to seek the recruitment of qualified teachers and he has written to various universities for filling vacant posts. Owing to the instability in the administration, the institution has failed to formulate the external examination system, although the GCU syndicate had passed a summery on Dec 23, 2003. In that meeting, three syndicate members had strongly opposed the university policy of entertaining private candidates and it was decided that such candidates would be considered after a year. Two years have lapsed but no practical step has been taken to comply with the direction of that meeting. A well-placed source said that the issue would again be taken up in the next syndicate meeting, likely to be held in the current month.
Insiders said that the institution had still not advanced beyond its initial stage even after the passage of four years. Shortage of faculty members, lack of facilities for teachers and students and appointments on contract basis had greatly hampered the university performance.
With more than a century-old history, the institution was founded in 1897 as the Municipal Middle School and its classes were started in the building of present Government College for Women, Karkhana Bazaar. The school was upgraded as a high school in September 1905. The provincial government, after taking over its charge in 1916, shifted the institution to the present building. In May 1924, it attained the intermediate college status, which was further upgraded to a degree level in October 1933. While postgraduate disciplines were introduced in 1963.
On July 1, 1990, the institution was named Government College, Faisalabad, an autonomous institution. With the sustained efforts of the Punjab governor, it got the university status on Oct 23, 2002. Dr Asif Iqbal was appointed its first vice-chancellor. Earlier, he was a college principal in Lahore.
Sources said the appointment of the college principal as vice-chancellor proved to be a crippling blow to the institution. The first four years of the university failed to produce the desired results because of lack of vision on part of the leadership. The former VC focused only on enrolment of students, but he never visualised how few classrooms would accommodate growing number of students. They said the unchecked enrolment forced the administration to start second shift in the university.
The administration, instead of recruiting regular qualified teachers, employed faculty members on contracts and many of them are still performing their duties as visiting teachers. This situation has upset the teachers who are under immense pressure of job insecurity. Sources said that the university had still not cleared the outstanding dues of most of contract teachers.
Empowerment of incumbents is another key factor which has led to a serious tussle between the VC and other office-bearers. They said at least eight registrars had worked with Dr Asif and one Chaudhry Mushtaq Ahmed had gone into litigation. The litigation barred the administration from appointing a new registrar and presently Dr Mushtaq Ahmed is working as acting registrar. Only after a few months of university’s inception, the former VC had engaged in a scuffle with the contractor of Fine Arts department, earning a bad name for the varsity.
The GCU is a general university, imparting education to students in 21 four-year honours programmes, 26 disciplines at post-graduate level and M.Phil/PhD in a number of disciplines. The university has five faculties - the faculty of science and technology, the faculty of administrative and management science, the faculty of arts and social science, the faculty of Islamic and oriental learning and the faculty of law. Around 26 disciplines are being offered at the masters level. However, only one faculty of science and technology dean Dr Shahid Mehboob Rana is working at present while four faculties are without deans for months. Many a times, seasoned teachers tried to join the university, but some 'unfavourable circumstances’ forced them to surrender.
Before attaining the university status, the Government College produced a number of students who earned good name in their respective fields. Prominent among them are Punjab Governor Khalid Maqbool, former SBP governor Dr M Yaqoob, renowned scientist Dr Ishfaq Ahmed, University of Engineering and Technology, Taxila, vice-chancellor Dr Habibullah Jamal, besides a large number of bureaucrats, industrialists, educationists and scientists.
The institution would not be an easy place for the new vice-chancellor who assumed his charge the other day.
When contacted, Dr Arif Zaidi remained tight-lipped regarding the performance of his predecessor, saying that he would set his own priorities. Initially, he said recruitment of qualified teachers would be completed and secondly the chain of command would be maintained. He said that he was here to encourage his colleagues for the image building of this historical institution.
He said the priority would be given to systemise routine affairs by empowering faculty deans and decentralising the authority. He admitted that teachers and students had been suffering owing to the shortage of academic staff. He said efforts were being made to recruit teachers and those who had left the institution would be brought back. However, he categorically stated that teachers terminated would not be reinstated.
“No new study programme will be launched in the institution but courses already being taught would be consolidated”, he said.