Pakistan Olympic Association

27-Dec-2011

Khalid Hussain

KARACHI: Pakistan’s hockey chiefs have decided to take 13 of the country’s former stalwarts to court after being accused of a variety of offences that include human trafficking and misappropriation of hefty grants provided by the government.

Qasim Zia, the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) president, told ‘The News’ on Monday that the PHF Executive Board and Congress have “Unanimously voted in the favour of filing a defamation suit against the Olympians for false allegations against the PHF and its top officials”.

“We can tolerate their (former Olympians’) criticism against our policies and the performance of the national team,” said Qasim, also a former Olympian. “But we cannot tolerate false allegations that are meant to tarnish not just our image but that of our country,” he added.

A group of 13 former Olympians including former captains Islahuddin Siddiqui, Shehnaz Sheikh and Shahbaz Ahmed Senior requested Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to sack the existing PHF set-up, claiming that Qasim Zia and Company have failed to put Pakistan hockey back on track.

Shehnaz Sheikh wrote a letter to the Gilani, who is PHF’s chief patron, on behalf of 12 other former Olympians including Khalid Mahmood, Saleem Sherwani, Samiullah, Saleem Nazim, Qamar Ibrahim, Qamar Zia, Saeed Khan, Mohammad Ayaz, Tahir Zaman and Naveed Alam.

Sheikh, a staunch critic of the current PHF set-up, briefed the premier that in spite of a record financial assistance provided by both the federal and provincial governments, PHF under Qasim Zia and Asif Bajwa (secretary), has failed to lift Pakistan hockey.

The letter also levelled long-standing allegations of human smuggling against the ‘present PHF’ and violation of the federation’s constitution. Sheikh highlighted the fact that in spite of an injection of over half-a-billion rupees, Pakistan’s hockey team has slumped to a worst-ever ninth place in international hockey.

Qasim claimed that under his leadership, PHF has been working honestly in its pursuit of regaining Pakistan hockey’s lost glory. “We are really angry at all those false allegations because we have been working for the betterment of Pakistan hockey with honesty and dedication,” he said. “They have levelled false and baseless allegations against us, something which we cannot tolerate because at the end of the day all of that brings a bad name for Pakistan,” added Qasim, a prominent leader of the ruling PPP.

When contacted, Islahuddin Siddiqui made it clear that he and other former Olympians stand by their criticism of the PHF. “We have just informed the prime minister about the ground situation of Pakistan hockey,” Islah told ‘The News’. “We are yet to receive any defamation suit from the PHF but are ready to face it because we have concrete reasons for our criticism of the PHF and its top officials,” added Islah, a former Pakistan captain.

Islah took another swipe at Qasim and Bajwa, calling them hypocrites. “Publicly, the top PHF officials want to patch up with us (former Olympians),” said Islah. “But behind the scenes, they are trying to undermine us in every way possible. They are even using negative tactics to that,” he stressed.

Islah underlined an incident which he claimed happened during the recently-concluded hockey series between Pakistan and China. Together with Ayaz Mehmood, another former Olympian, Islah was supposed to commentate during the series for the state-run television channel telecasting the four-match contest. However, according to Islah, just 30 minutes before the start of the match in Karachi, the TV channel decided to replace the team of Islah and Ayaz with another set of commentators.

“I was informed by one of the TV producers that the PHF top bosses used their influence to get us out. I was stunned because I never though that anybody can stoop so low and use such negative tactics,” said Islah.

“I must say that Qasim Zia and Asif Bajwa are hypocrites because publicly they were showing everybody that the PHF is trying to patch up with the former Olympians. But at the same time they were stabbing us in the back.”