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Olympians Fail to Reach Consensus Back To Main

06-Jan-2012

The News

KARACHI: A group of former Olympians have failed to come out with a consensus on how to deal with a legal notice served on them by the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF).

According to sources, a group of 13 Olympians who were hoping to work out a joint strategy to deal with the PHF, have developed differences amongst their ranks.

Sources said that there is clear divide within the group with former Pakistan captain Islahuddin Siddiqui at the helm of one of them while Shahnaz Sheikh, also an ex-captain, is leading the other.

Islah and several other ex-Olympians are unhappy with Shahnaz for writing a letter to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani – PHF’s chief patron — in which he had highlighted PHF’s shortcomings.

Shahnaz wrote the letter on behalf of 12 other fellow Olympians including Islah. In his letter, he had underlined several points including the case of human-trafficking against top PHF officials. In response, the PHF has served a legal notice on the Olympians and is now threatening to file defamation suits of Rs500 million against each of them. The Olympians are supposed to send their response by January 10. “The Olympians have yet to agree on a joint strategy because of differences among their ranks,” said a source.