Lawmakers slam POA, PHF heads for Pakistan's abject show in international sports.

ISLAMABAD -- The anguish and resentment over Pakistan's dismal show in international sports over the past many years resonated here in the National Assembly on Tuesday.

Expressing their views candidly on the occasion, the treasury lawmakers including ministers explicitly blamed the president of the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) retired Lt General Syed Arif Hasan and Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) president retired Brigadier Khalid Sajjad Khokhar for their discernible failure to bring improvement in the country's sports, particularly in field hockey, the national game.

The matter of the PHF's abject flop to steer Pakistan hockey out of its elongated crisis was taken up by none other than Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on the floor of NA.

He said a retired brigadier has been 'running the PHF affairs illegally'.

'This person got himself elected in clear violation of the PHF constitution,' Asif said, adding that Khokhar had been undertaking tours to various countries at the expense of government funds.

'I still remember, back in 2008 when I was [the] federal petroleum minister, this brigadier after his retirement had been heading the Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation; since then he has been [present] in the system,' he said.

'This man has occupied the federation.'

He said because of such appointments, the country's sports sector over the years had faced visible decline.

Here it is relevant to mention that Pakistan, the former four-time hockey World Cup winners, three-time Olympic gold medallists and three-time Champions Trophy victors, stand nowhere in the present world hockey. The green-shirts could not even qualify for the 2014 (Hague) and 2023 (Bhubaneswar) editions of the World Cup and finished a miserable 12th in the 16-nation global event staged in Bhubaneswar in 2018.

Earlier, they came last (12th) in the 2010 World Cup held in New Delhi. Similarly in Olympics, the country failed to reach the 2016 (Rio de Janeiro) and 2020 (Tokyo) editions, and had earned a poor seventh spot at the 2012 London Games. Not having won the Champions Trophy title since 1994, the country came last in the 2018 six-team event staged at Breda, Netherlands.

Expressing his frustration over Pakistan's abject display in other sports, Asif said 'like this retired brigadier, there is a retired general who has been enjoying the top position of POA presidency for the last 23 years and 'still he does not want to go home'.

In an embarrassing state of affairs...