Who is the ‘real’ president of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF): Tariq Bugti or Shehla Raza? That is the question!
Apparently, the PHF has split into two factions, one led by Tariq Bugti and the other by Shehla Raza. On Tuesday, Shehla Raza was ‘elected’ the new president of the PHF through an ‘election’ in Karachi. Just two days later, on Thursday, Tariq Bugti was ‘elected’ the new president of the PHF through an ‘election’ in Islamabad. But who is the ‘real’ president? Nobody knows.
One faction of the PHF Congress elected Shehla Raza the president of the country’s hockey governing body and two days later the other faction of the PHF Congress elected Tariq Bugti the PHF president. Bugti was named ad-hoc PHF president by caretaker Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar before being elected full-time president.
The wrangling has created an air of uncertainty with Pakistan standing at its lowest ebb in the global game. Reports suggest that Congress members from Balochistan and Sindh attended Tuesday’s meeting in Karachi. On the other hand, Congress members from Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa stayed away from this meeting.
Bugti’s group rejected Shehla’s election, declaring it null and void as “no representative of the Pakistan Olympic Association and the Pakistan Sports Board attended the meeting in Karachi”.
Talking to reporters on Thursday, Shehla Raza said she has sought time from the prime minister to fix this issue. She said that PHF Congress elected her the new president of the federation. She said that Congress members who elected Tariq Bugti were removed from the Congress well before the election.
