KARACHI: Pakistan hockey administrators are once again in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons as the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Sports has decided to take action against what it believes were immoral activities by players and officials in Argentina.
Jamshaid Dasti, the chairman of the committee, has taken strong notice of pictures of team officials and players with some local girls. While forward Rehan Butt was pictured hugging a local girl, some were seen drinking in the pictures.
In one of the pictures, goalkeeper Salman Akbar was seen apparently with a bottle of alcoholic drink, while his other teammates and team officials could be seen posing with girls having drinks in a discotheque.
‘First they lost the tournament, but that’s sports. But what is appalling are those pictures in which players were merrymaking and having fun with Argentine girls. We cannot tolerate such immoral acts. And this all happened in the presence of team manager and coach. Were they in Argentina to tarnish country’s image,” Dasti told Dawn on Wednesday.
The member of the National Assembly said he would be summoning Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) officials within a week for a grilling session.
‘While the officials will be punished for their unprofessional behaviour, the players will also get penalised. I want to give them (PHF and the players) a message that this is not on and we cannot ignore such immoral activities,” said the MNA.
Although it is believed that Rehan and goalkeeper Salman Akbar have been fined for coming late to their rooms after winning against India, Rehan has denied he had been penalised by the PHF.
Rehan says neither the PHF has imposed a penalty nor was there any immoral activity during the tour where Pakistan had participated in the Champions Challenge. For Rehan, the electronic media had blown things out of proportion to make a scandal out of it.
‘No, we have not been fined. That’s absolutely incorrect. As far as the pictures with the girls are concerned, one of the ladies was our liaison officer while other one her friend. I must say it is all rubbish. It has been blown out of proportion. We indeed had some pictures with that lady but that’s all,” said Rehan.
Interestingly, while the pictures have been shown by the media, they have been also posted at YouTube following which the standing committee took cognizance.
Asked what could be the fate of the inquiry by the standing committee, Dasti said action against the officials as well as players could be expected. The MNA, however, did not elaborate what action could be taken by the standing committee.
Dasti claimed the previous investigation involving PHF Secretary Asif Bajwa in visa scandal had to be closed as both the parties had reached a compromise.
‘In the visa scandal, we had to close the case when sub-committee informed that PHF secretary and Mansoor Ahmad and Naveed had withdrawn their allegations against each other. When there was no complaint and no evidence, we had to close the case. But what happened in Argentina, it showed team officials have no control over the players,” he said.
Former Pakistan goalkeeper Mansoor Ahmad had accused Asif of misusing his authority by applying for German visas for his wife and son and an unknown person posing him as journalist, while former Pakistan player Naveed had levelled charges of human smuggling on the PHF secretary, saying he had sent people to Italy.
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