Lahore – Former Olympian Naveed Alam on Friday said no elections of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) under the incumbent management led by president Qasim Zia will be acceptable to anyone, and appealed to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to announce an election commissioner himself.The PHF has announced the schedule for the Oct 25-Nov 25 federation elections, to be held from club to national level. The federation has also appointed Federal Information Minister Pervaiz Rasheed as election commissioner.
Addressing a crowded news conference here on Friday, Naveed, who has been appointed coach of Bangladesh hockey team earlier this year, said he had returned from Bangladesh just to contest the PHF elections. However, Naveed reckoned, fair elections could not be possible under Qasim Zia, who he said had destroyed Pakistan hockey during the last five years.
“The current PHF management will only want to bring in their friends through elections to run the federation for the next four years only because it suits them to hide the corruption they committed during the last five years,” Naveed stated.
Asked if he was not accepting the information minister as election commissioner, he said Pervaiz Rasheed was a good person but added that given his position he must be excessively busy in several other affairs of the state. “Therefore, some other person should be named as election commissioner by the prime minister [patron-in-chief of the PHF], and not by the incumbent PHF set-up.”
Naveed vowed if his demands regarding the forthcoming elections were not accepted, he would neither contest the elections nor would he allow the PHF to hold the elections.
He said Qasim Zia and his PHF personnel ruled the federation for five years while receiving around Rs600 million from the government as grant.
“The main target of Qasim Zia was gold medal in next year’s World Cup, but Pakistan could not even qualify for the mega event it,” Naveed lamented. “And I don’t know for what performance the people at the helm have the authority to conduct the elections,” he wondered.
“They [top PHF officials] should have resigned soon after national squad’s dismal performance in the World Hockey League and the Asia Cup.
“Instead of leaving the scene, they are planning to bring in their friends through elections so that no one can hold them accountable for their wrong actions.”
When pointed out that Akhtar Rasool was also interested to contest the elections, Naveed said though Akhtar was a great player he had no right to contest elections “because under his coaching Pakistan’s senior team suffered the disaster of failing to make the World Cup for the first time”.
Asked if the prime minister recommended Akhtar as new PHF head, Naveed said he could not believe. “The prime minister would consider Akhtar’s past performance as head coach before taking any decision [to appoint the federation’s head],” the former Olympian stated. – Dawn.com via Google
