The Pakistani government declared the two-year ban that national hockey team captain Ammad Shakeel Butt had received from the PHF “illegal and unconstitutional” on Friday.
Following Butt’s tirade against the PHF’s poor administration during the recent Australia trip, Tariq Bugti banned Butt for two years for his criticism of the organization just before he resigned as president of the Pakistan Hockey Federation on Thursday.
However, Muhuydin Ahmed Wani, the PHF’s interim president designated by patron-in-chief and Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, overturned the ruling, calling Bugti’s action “illegal and unconstitutional.”
After the national team’s return from Australia, where they encountered logistical difficulties and were forced to stay in Airbnb residences despite the state-run Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) giving the PHF 10 million rupees for the team’s five-star hotel accommodations during its FIH Pro League matches in Canberra, Bugti resigned on Thursday.
According to a senior source in the Inter-Provincial Coordination Ministry, which handles all matters pertaining to sports, Prime Minister Sharif accepted Bugti’s resignation right away and named Wani the PHF’s ad hoc president and Brig. Musratullah its director-general. Wani was the ministry’s secretary and is a prominent bureaucrat.
“Both will manage hockey affairs on ad-hoc basis and try to repair the damage done,” PTI quoted the source as saying.
Butt and a few other senior players informed the waiting media at the airport shortly after the squad’s early Wednesday return that they could no longer work with the PHF and team administration as it stands.
After Butt revealed how the players were supplied false information and threatened to keep quiet about their issues in Australia, Bugti banned Butt from both domestic and international hockey for two years for defaming Pakistani hockey.
Butt had criticized the PHF, saying that during the trip, when the team lost all of its FIH Pro League games against Germany and the home team, players were made “clean the kitchen and wash dishes” before they could go out to play.
Even though the PHF received the necessary funds from the PSB, they had to travel for hours after the hotel reserved for them refused to let them in because they had not paid in advance.
Butt also claimed that over the past year, most of the players had not received their daily allowances from the PSB and PHF. However, Bugti placed the responsibility for the disaster on PSB, claiming that the Board was “responsible for whatever happened there” and that it was in charge of all tour arrangements.
Pakistan is currently ranked last in the nine-team FIH Pro League after losing all eight of its games to the Netherlands, Argentina, Australia, and Germany. After four months, Pakistan travel to Egypt to compete in the World Cup qualifying tournament.
