KP Hockey Association Appeal To PM To Intervene In Grass Violation Of Financial Mismanagement In PHF

The office-bearers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Hockey Association on Wednesday alleged financial mismanagement in the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) by withdrawing cheques on a single signatory worth millions of rupees

PESHAWAR, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22nd Nov, 2017 ) :The office-bearers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Hockey Association on Wednesday alleged financial mismanagement in the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) by withdrawing cheques on a single signatory worth millions of rupees and asked the National Accountability Bureau to conduct a probe in order to nib the people involved.

Addressing a press conference here at Qayyum Sports, Senior Vice President of the Pakistan Hockey Federation and former Inspector General of Police Muhammad Saeed Khan and Secretary KP Hockey Association Syed Zahid Shah have also appealed to the Prime Minister of Pakistan Shahid Khaqan Abbaso, who is also Patron-in-Chief of the Pakistan Hockey Federation to question the management of the PHF for their grass violation of the rules and regulation in withdrawing the cheques-in-cash on single signatory rather with the signatures of the both the President and the Secretary through cross-cheque payments.

They also criticized and expressed disappointment over the treatment meted out to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Hockey teams in the Under-16 National Hockey Championship and returning all its three teams had gone to participate in the Championship was being played in Khairpur in Sindh province.

Our fault was that we questioned the huge withdrawing of money from different account without fulfilling the required criteria and the PHF management in returned sent our three teams, which had been properly selected after conducting trials, back to Peshawar by not allowing them to participate in the ongoing National Under-16 Hockey Championship.

Secretary KP Hokey Association Syed Zahir Shah accused Secretary PHF Shahbaz Ahmad Senior of misappropriating the federation funds. He said the government provided Rs.460 million funds to PHF during the last two years, saying out of this amount Rs.220 million were withdrawal without completing the necessary procedure.

Two persons are required to sign a cheques for withdrawal of more than Rs.100,000 cash from the PHF account but millions are withdrawn on a single signature from the federation account, he added while showing the copy of the withdrawn cheques.

Flanked by Senior Vice-president PHF Muhammad Saeed Khan along with all members of the Pakistan Hockey Federation congress from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he said Shahbaz Senior withdrew over Rs.3.3 million on October 7, 2017 and on another account and close associate of Shahbaz had withdrawn Rs.235, 500 on October 21, 2017.

Showing the copies of the withdrawals to media, he claimed that he had proofs to prove his claims. He said the secretary in a letter on his official letter paid had told the Pakistan sports board that all the payments were done through cross cheques but alleged that Rs.220 million were withdrawn from banks in violation of the set rules.

He shared some details of these withdrawals with the media. He said that over Rs.116.5 millions had been withdrawn from the PHF account in just five months between November 2016 to March 2017. He said that president PHF was under treatment in China during this period.

On whose authority these funds were withdrawn from the PHF account?, he asked. He said the KP Hockey Association had brought these anomalies into the notice of PHF but to no avail. He said that neither a meeting of the PHF congress nor any provincial or district or Senior Hockey Championships were organized during the past two years.

He questioned the selection for the National team, saying mismanagement and corruption were the major reasons of Hockey decline in the country. He accused Shahbaz Senior of damaging the national game and poor performance of the National Hockey Team in international events.

He said Pakistan had won the Hockey World Cup four times but now it only managed to win only two matches in the Asia Hockey Champions Trophy. Zahir Shah said the PHF returned three teams of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had gone to participate in the Under-16 National Hockey Championship.

He alleged the PHF Secretary had verbally told the organizers of the Championship not allow the KP teams to play in the event. He said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa teams were not provided any accommodation and were maltreated by the PHF.

He said the players for the Championship had been selected after trials in which 258 players from across the province participated. Sixty seven players were selected during the trials for the Championship, he added.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is meted out step motherly attitude and it players were not allowed to participate in the championship which is injustice with the young and talented players, he demanded. They asked the Premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who is also the patron-in-chief of PHF, to take note of funds misappropriation and order an investigation against into the allegations.

They also asked the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to initiate an investigation into the financial anomalies in the PHF to purge the federation of corruption.