Confusion surrounds appointment of new PHF secretary

LAHORE: Already up against the Pakistan Sports Board, embattled Pakistan Hockey Federation president retired Brig Khalid Sajjad Khokhar has picked up another fight — this time within the federation.

Earlier this month, Khokhar — along with PHF secretary Asif Bajwa and treasurer Ikhlaq Usmani — had been de-notified by the PSB after failing to hold elections of the country’s hockey governing body which were due in May this year.

PSB, the country’s sports regulatory body, then appointed a four-member ad-hoc committee, which also included Khokhar, to hold elections within a month.

Khokhar has not only rejected both those measures but on Monday there were widespread reports that former international Saeed Khan had been appointed as the acting PHF secretary in place of Bajwa.

Bajwa, however, was still in office on Monday and remained tight-lipped on the development. He also did not comment on reports that he had tendered his resignation.

Khokhar also did not speak on the issue as he was preparing to travel to Birmingham for the Commonwealth Games, where the national hockey team is due to participate.

Sources close to the situation questioned how Khokhar could appoint Saeed, who has never been a member of the PHF Congress.

According to the constitution, only the associate secretary of the PHF, Zahir Shah, could take the charge as acting secretary in place of Bajwa.

“The entire situation is making a mockery of the PHF constitution and it is clear that the PHF president is not acting on the measures taken by the PHF,” sources told Dawn.

They added that the best solution to tackle all the pertaining issues was to hold a PHF executive committee or congress meeting to take all stakeholders into confidence regarding the decisions. “Fresh elections can be another solution,” they added.

In another development on Monday, Manzoor Junior was one again made the chairman of the national selection committee.

Manzoor had been removed from the post and had resigned earlier this month after being given the role as the manager of the national junior team.