LAHORE: Brig (r) Muhammad Khalid Sajjad Khokhar was re-elected as the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) President for the third time after the national federation’s elections in Karachi on Friday. Syed Haider Hussain was elected as the PHF Secretary General. Haider Hussain, who is the PHF Council member and also serving as the Karachi Hockey Association (KHA) Secretary, has replaced former Olympian Muhammad Asif Bajwa. It is pertinent to mention that Khalid and former Olympian Shahbaz Ahmed Senior were ‘handed over’ the reins of the PHF in 2015 after Pakistan failed to qualify for the Rio Olympics 2016. The PHF Chief Patron, the then Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, wanted former Pakistan captain Akhtar Rasool, the then PHF Chief, out of his sight for political reasons as well as for some ‘hatred’. And the Olympics failure gave a perfect opportunity not only to the Chief Executive of the country as well as to Khalid and Shahbaz to grab the lucrative posts. Khalid represented the Pakistan Army hockey team from 1973-84. However he was never able to represent the country. Khalid and Shahbaz were re-elected as President and Secretary in 2018 for a full term of four years. However, Shahbaz resigned from his post in 2019 as he could not give enough time to the national federation due to his “assignment” with PIA. Former Olympian Asif Bajwa was his replacement. But later Asif also lost the confidence of PHF President Khalid.
Elections without any observer from PSB: There was no observer from the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) in yesterday’s election due to ongoing tussle between the two sports organisations. In July this year, the PSB de-notified Khalid along with three more PHF officials for failing to meet the deadline for the national federation’s elections which were due in May this year. The PSB, during July, also appointed a four-member committee to hold the elections within 30 days. Ignoring both the moves, Khalid took a firm stand to hold the elections according to PHF constitution. Interestingly, the PHF picked Karachi as the venue for the elections while overlooking Lahore, its own headquarters, because the district level elections in Lahore were not held due to the protest of many clubs against the process which was followed for scrutinising the clubs. In Karachi, the PHF has its own Abdul Sattar Edhi Hockey Stadium and the support of Shehla Raza, a key figure of the Sindh Government, who has facilitated the Sindh Hockey Association on different occasions. However, the worrying aspect of the situation is that the PHF elections were held against the wishes of the Federal Government.
During the last four years, the Sindh Government has supported the PHF while allotting a huge amount for renovating the Abdul Sattar Edhi Hockey Stadium. With financial backing from the Sindh Government, Khalid could run the PHF without the Federal Government’s support. It is interesting to note that the Federal Government has recently received a recommendation of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) to conduct the audit of PHF accounts of the last eight years, during which Khalid remained the national federation’s President.
Khalid assures salaries to coach and players: National hockey team’s head coach Siegfried Aikman of Netherlands, members of the coaching panel and players will get their salaries by next week, assured re-elected Khalid. “We know about the hardships that the players and coaching panel faced,” Khalid said while speaking to journalists after being re-elected as the PHF President. “I am more concerned than you, even though I often paid players from my pocket,” he said, adding that the Government delayed funds of the national federation. During the recently concluded Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022, the Pakistan team’s head coach lamented about financial issues in the national federation and revealed that he didn’t even receive his first salary. “It wasn’t from our end; the Government delayed our funds. By next week, we will receive funds from the Government after which players and coaches will get their salaries for sure,” he added.