<\/p>\n
ISLAMABAD\/LAHORE: Pakis\u00adtan Hockey Federation (PHF) president retired Brig. Khalid Sajjad Khokhar is set to contest the government\u2019s decision of removing him from the post and replacing him with Tariq Hussain Mansoori Bugti.<\/p>\n
Caretaker Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar on Friday had appointed Tariq, a former MPA from Balochistan, as the PHF president, giving him the mandate to constitute a five-member committee to deal with the day-to-day affairs of the body besides scrutinising clubs and the electoral college to set the foundation for its \u201cfree and fair elections\u201d.<\/p>\n
Khokhar, however, stands recognised by the International Hockey Federation (FIH) as the legitimate president of the PHF. He, therefore, has announced that he will file a court case against the government\u2019s decision on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am the legitimate and elected president and I will fight against this decision till my last breath,\u201d Khokhar said in a press conference here on Saturday, while claiming that Tariq\u2019s appointment was \u201cillegal and unconstitutional\u201d.<\/p>\n
Khokhar believed the verdict of the prime minister, who is the PHF\u2019s patron-in-chief, was against the policies of the FIH, International Olympic Committee (IOC), Pakistan Olympic Association as well as the federation\u2019s constitution.<\/p>\n
While ruing that the government was spoiling his \u201csacrifices, family time and wealth in the promotion of hockey\u201d, Khokhar claimed that the PHF office in Lahore was \u201ctaken over through illegal actions\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to avoid confrontation but I have now been forced to approach IOC and FIH,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2026 this is a matter of respect and I won\u2019t compromise.\u201d<\/p>\n
The controversy dates back to last year, when the PHF had come under the Pakistan Sports Board\u2019s (PSB) scrutiny for failing to conduct the federation\u2019s elections.<\/p>\n
The PSB back then as well had constituted a committee to carry out the polls before Khokhar went on to hold the elections himself which led to his re-election as the controversy was put to bed.<\/p>\n
Although the polls weren\u2019t recognised by the PSB, Khokhar\u2019s step had made the body defer action against them to a few months later. In August, Khokhar and his office bearers were declared \u201csuspended\u201d in a notification issued by the PSB.<\/p>\n
Khokhar claimed that the PSB was \u201cresponsible for all the mess being faced by the PHF\u201d. He said his complaints of alleged corruption of billions of rupees at PSB was being ignored by the government and the Ministry of Inter-provincial Coordination.<\/p>\n
Khokhar also criticised \u201cblue-eyed\u201d officials and federations being \u201cblessed\u201d by the PSB higher-ups.<\/p>\n
CALL FOR UNITY<\/strong><\/p>\n Tariq, meanwhile, took office as the PHF president on Saturday, arriving while being escorted by police as well as his personal security guards.<\/p>\n He was shown his office by DG Punjab Sports Board Asif Tufail, who is the custodian of the entire National Hockey Stadium and its allied offices.<\/p>\n Later Tariq met the federation\u2019s secretary Rana Mujahid, chief selector Asif Bajwa, Pakistan senior hockey team manager Shahbaz Sr, former players Shahnaz Sheikh, Tauqir Dar, Rehan Butt, Moha\u00admmad Saqlain, Khalid Bashir, Shakil Abbasi, Rana Shafique and Qadeer Bashir.<\/p>\n The government-nominated PHF chief wished Khokhar was present while he took charge of the post, while claiming he had tried to contact the latter.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would have been better if Khokhar received me and handed over the charge to me over a cup of tea,\u201d Tariq told Dawn. \u201cIt would have been a good gesture if I that happened. I want to move forward with unity.\u201d<\/p>\n Tariq said forming the five-member committee on the instructions of Kakar was his first priority before calling a meeting of the PHF Congress to get the vote of confidence.<\/p>\n Although the meeting can be called in January at the earliest, Dawn has learnt that the vote of confidence can help Tariq to avoid the FIH\u2019s wrath, which could be a potential ban on the PHF due to government interference.<\/p>\n Unlike, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), the PHF Congress, having a strength of 103 members, holds the power to give the vote of confidence to PHF\u2019s office bearers.<\/p>\n Even if the FIH takes any action, it won\u2019t be before the end of the ongoing Christmas and New Year holidays, for which the body\u2019s offices are closed.<\/p>\n As hockey faces a steep decline in Pakistan, Tariq said he had plans to make the national side one of the top teams in the world. He believed hockey could attract funds through better performances of the team.<\/p>\n Dawn understands Khokhar was disappointed about Tariq being let into the PHF\u2019s offices without facing any resistance by the officials on duty. He had asked for an explanation through a phone call to one of the employees.<\/p>\n Any resistance may have delayed Tariq taking charge of the post, but the government-nominated president, Dawn has learnt, was wary of a potential stay order from a court, which why he arrived as early as possible.<\/p>\n Published in Dawn, December 24th, 2023<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ISLAMABAD\/LAHORE: Pakis\u00adtan Hockey Federation (PHF) president retired Brig. Khalid Sajjad Khokhar is set to contest the government\u2019s decision of removing him from the post and replacing him with Tariq Hussain Mansoori Bugti. Caretaker Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar on Friday had appointed Tariq, a former MPA from Balochistan, as the PHF president, giving him the mandate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/12\/24100409ceed5a0.png?r=100558","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}