ISLAMABAD, Jun 20 (APP):The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) on Tuesday expressed serious concern regarding the elections held by the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) and directed the Ministry of Inter- Provincial Coordination (IPC) to conduct a thorough audit of the funds provided to the PHF as sports grants.
The committee, which met here at the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination under the chairmanship of Nawab Sher, also directed that the audit report be submitted to it for review.
It emphasized that the Report of the Management Committee, constituted to finalize the recommendations in the matters pertaining to the PHF’s affairs, should be submitted to the prime minister as soon as possible.
Furthermore, the committee directed the Secretary Interior and the Director General of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to enforce strict measures and not allow any players or officials of sports federations to leave the country unless they acquire a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the Ministry of IPC and the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB).
At the outset, the committee was informed by the Secretary IPC that there were many audit paras pending in the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) against the PHF.
The PHF Secretary said elections were conducted according to the Federation’s constitution. However, the committee noted that the International Hockey Federation allegedly granted permission to the PHF in that regard.
Minister for IPC Ehsan Ur Rehman Mazari pointed out that the prime minister had constituted a high-power committee on the affairs of PHF under the chairmanship of Minister for Defence along with Minister for Economic Affairs Division and Minister for IPC.
The high-power committee, he said, recommended to conduct financial audit of accounts of the PHF by Federal Audit and Performance Audit by the Management Committee headed by the PSB Director General. The said Management Committee unanimously recommended that the prime minister being the Petron-in-Chief of PHF might call for a free and fair election of the Federation and nominate an interim committee for at least six months.
The standing committee emphasized that the report of the Management Committee should be submitted to the prime minister at the earliest. it also directed the Ministry of IPC to conduct a thorough audit of the funds provided to the PHF as sports grants and audit report thereof should be submitted to the standing committee for its review.
While briefing on the National Sports Policy 2022-2027, the IPC Minister informed the committee that draft of said Sports Policy was under consideration with the Federal Cabinet for its approval. The committee asked the minister to expedite the National Sports Policy 2022-2027 from the Federal Cabinet in order to ensure transparency, accountability, and fair governance within the realm of sports in Pakistan.
The meeting was attended by MNAs/members of the committee including Rana Mubashir Iqbal, Zulfiqar Ali Behan, Shahida Rehmani, Rubina Irfan, Makhdoom Syed Sami-ul-Hassan Gillani, Javairia Zafar Aheer (through video-link). Dr. Mahreen Razzaq Bhutto, MNA/Mover was also present in the meeting. The senior officers from Ministry of IPC, Pakistan Olympic Association, Pakistan Hockey Federation, Pakistan Sports Board and Pakistan Football Federation were also present in the meeting.