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Olympians launch campaign to oust Bajwa
KARACHI: Around 86 former Olympians and internationals on Sunday launched a campaign demanding the sacking of Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) secretary Asif Bajwa, holding him responsible for the national team’s worst ever performance in the World Cup in New Delhi.
“We demand that the President of the federation Qasim Zia immediately sack Bajwa because he held total powers in the federation and team and had taken on dual roles of secretary and chief coach/manager,” former captain Islahuddin Siddique told a press conference.
The conference was attended by number of former Olympians and internationals including Waseem Feroze, Akhtar-ul-Islam, Qamar Ibrahim, Ayaz Mehmood and Qamar Zia while Islahuddin also displayed a document which had signatures of other former greats including Khalid Mehmood, Khawaja Zakauddin, Mansoor Ahmed and Naved Alam.
“When Bajwa enjoys complete power, he must take complete responsibility for the debacle in the World Cup as well. He is responsible for our worst ever performance at the top level,” Islahuddin said.
Akhtar-ul-Islam a former secretary of the federation said that the movement wanted PHF President Qasim Zia to remove Bajwa in three days time.
“If he does not do that, we will launch a countrywide campaign against Bajwa and the federation and also meet with the President and Prime Minister to inform them of what is happening,” he said.
Qamar Ibrahim also lashed out at Bajwa and said, “No matter what the (coach) Shahid Ali Khan says now everyone saw on television who was the chief coach of the team. Bajwa acted as chief coach despite being the manager of the team,” he said.
Ayaz Mehmood, member of the 1984 Los Angles gold medal winning Olympic team, said if the PHF President didn’t sack Bajwa then they would press the government to appoint an ad-hoc committee to run hockey affairs.
“We cannot allow our national game to fall to such depths. We have had bad performances in the past but never like this. There was no team spirit or management visible in the World Cup,” he said.
The Pakistan hockey squad that returned quietly home last evening was booed at the Lahore airport by the people who also chanted slogans against Qasim Zia and Asif Bajwa.
Sources close to the team said that some players were unhappy with the way Bajwa managed the team.
“We didn’t go to the World Cup to listen to abusive language, nor was they any proper plan for us for such a big competition,” one player said without wanting to be named.
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