Daily Times

LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has asked the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) to return Rs10 million loan that it gave to the latter in 2000 under the chairmanship of General (r) Tauqir Zia. The PHF, which is already running out of cash, was sent a letter by the PCB chief operating officer Subhan Ahmed on October 5, 2016 demanding a return of the said loan on priority basis. The amount was given to the hockey team which was due to participate in the Sydney Olympics in the aforementioned year. However, PCB later revealed that it was a loan and the PHF would have to return it. The letter sent to the PHF president Khalid Sajjad Khokhar reads: “We refer to our four self-explanatory (copies enclosed for ready reference) concerning outstanding loan of Rs10 million due from the PHF. We will be highly obliged, if matter is treated on priority and the PHF releases an amount of Rs6 million in favour of PCB against overdue installments of six years (2011-2016) so that the latest status may be conveyed to Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination and Directorate of Federal General Audit, Islamabad.”

Documents further revealed that the PCB and PHF officials first met to resolve this issue on March 10, 2011 at the National Cricket Academy where it was mutually agreed that hockey federation would return this amount in installments. Although the number of installments were not agreed at that time but the PCB sent another letter on January 10, 2012 in which they suggest that there should be at least 10 installments to clear this amount. “We request the PCB to declare this loan of Rs10 million as a grant like Bangladesh, where government has announced a policy which pushed Bangladesh Cricket Board to give 5 percent of their income to the national game,” said PHF secretary general Shahbaz Senior.