LAHORE, Jan 17: All district, divisional and provincial hockey associations will be dissolved on Jan 27 to hold fresh elections under the devolution plan, the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) said Thursday.

Under the plan, the divisional bodies would be eliminated and the district and provinces would form the structure.

Elections for district associations would be held from Jan 29 to 31, and for provincial associations on Feb 16. Dates for the PHF would be announced later.

Air Vice Marshal (retd) Farooq Umar (Punjab), Wg-Cdr Pervaiz Saeed Mir (NWFP), Mir Israrullah Zehri (Balochistan) and Col Afzal Khan (retd) (Sindh) have been appointed Election Commissioners.

The caretaker management for each province was also named. For Punjab Brig Sarfraz Ahmad (retd) will be the caretaker. He will be assisted by Chowdhry Mohammad Bashir and Tariq Munir Butt.

Col Afzal, the caretaker for Sindh, will be assisted by Abdul Waheed Khan. In NWFP, Wg-Cdr Pervaiz will be assisted by Saeed Khan.

Israrullah will manage Balochistan’s affairs. Col Salahuddin (retd) will look after the affairs of Islamabad the association.

The number of clubs had been reduced from 1100 to 400 after scrutiny.

The PHF had decided to give incentives for active clubs and impose ban on those who would not take part in two consecutive tournaments, he said.

The elections of the district would be conducted by the district coordination officer who had been instructed by the Governor’s Secretariat of the respective provinces.

No employee of the Pakistan Sports Board or the Provincial Sports Boards would be allowed to take part in the elections.

A candidate who had completed two terms would not be eligible to contest elections for the district bodies. However, he could contest for an office of the provincial association and the PHF.

The elections in Balochistan would not be held since the province has no club except Quetta. The affairs of the Balochistan would be managed by a committee headed by Mir Israrullah.