Lahore, February 20 The Pakistan government on Friday revoked the two-year ban imposed on national hockey team captain Ammad Shakeel Butt by the national federation (PHF), calling the move "illegal and unconstitutional".
Just before resigning from his position as president of the Pakistan Hockey Federation on Thursday, Tariq Bugti had banned Butt for two years for his criticism of the PHF following Butt's outburst against the mismanagement during the recent tour to Australia.
However, Muhuydin Ahmed Wani, the interim president of the PHF appointed by Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, reversed the decision, stating that it was an "illegal and unconstitutional" move by Bugti.
Bugti had resigned on Thursday following a major fallout after the national team's return from Australia, where they faced logistical nightmares and had to stay in Airbnb residences despite the state-run Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) releasing 10 million rupees to the PHF for five-star hotel accommodation for the team during its FIH Pro League matches in Canberra.
A senior official of the Inter-Provincial Coordination Ministry (which looks after all sports-related issues) confirmed that Prime Minister Sharif had immediately accepted Bugti's resignation and appointed Wani as the ad-hoc president of the PHF and Brig Musratullah as Director-General.
Wani is a senior bureaucrat and was the secretary of the ministry.
"Both will manage hockey affairs on an ad-hoc basis and try to repair the damage," he said.
Soon after the team returned home in the early hours of Wednesday, Butt and some other senior players told the waiting media at the airport that they could no longer work with the current management of the PHF and the team management.
Butt disclosed how the players were fed lies, threatened to avoid speaking to the media about their problems in Australia, following which Bugti banned Butt for two years from international and domestic hockey for bringing Pakistan hockey into disrepute.
Butt had criticized the PHF, stating that the players were forced "to clean the kitchen and wash dishes" before competing in the tour, in which the side lost all its matches of the FIH Pro League against the home team and Germany.
This followed their spending hours on the road after the hotel earmarked for them declined them entry due to a lack of advance payment by the PHF, despite the body receiving the necessary funds from the PSB.
Butt had also alleged that a majority of the players had not received their daily allowances from the PSB and the PHF for the past year.
However, Bugti shifted the blame for the fiasco on the PSB, insisting that the Board had handled all the arrangements for the tour and was "responsible for whatever happened there".
Pakistan has so far lost all eight of its matches in the FIH Pro League to Netherlands, Argentina, Australia and Germany and is placed last in the nine-team competition.
Pakistan has to travel to Egypt after four months to take part in the final qualifying tournament for the World Cup.
