Pakistan’s government has lifted the two-year ban imposed on national hockey captain Ammad Shakeel Butt, calling the action taken by the country’s hockey federation “illegal and unconstitutional”.The ban was announced by Tariq Bugti shortly before he stepped down as president of the Pakistan Hockey Federation. Butt criticized the federation for mismanagement during the team’s recent tour of Australia.But the federation’s chief patron, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, appointed interim PHF president Muhuydin Ahmed Wani, who reversed the decision, calling it an “illegal and unconstitutional move” by Bugti.Bugti resigned after a major setback after the national team returned from Australia, where the players faced logistical problems and stayed in Airbnb accommodation despite the Pakistan Sports Council releasing 10 million rupees to the PHF for a five-star hotel during the FIH Pro League matches in Canberra.A senior official from the Inter-Provincial Coordination Ministry confirmed that Prime Minister Sharif accepted Bugti’s resignation and appointed Wani ad-hoc president of PHF along with Brig Musratullah as director general.“Both will ad-hoc manage hockey affairs and try to repair the damage done,” the official said, according to PTI.After the team returned home early on Wednesday, Butt and several senior players told reporters that they could no longer cooperate with the existing PHF and team management. Butt said the players were misled and warned against speaking to the media about their problems in Australia. After that, Bugtim was banned for disparaging Pakistan hockey.Butt also accused the PHF of making players “clean the kitchen and wash the dishes” before matches during the tour, in which the team lost all their Pro League matches against the home team and Germany. The players were also left stranded for hours after the hotel refused them entry due to lack of advance from the PHF, despite funds from the PSB.He further claimed that most of the players have not received daily allowances from PSB and PHF for the last one year.Blaming the PSB for the episode, Bugti said the board was involved in organizing the tour and was “responsible for everything that happened there”.Pakistan have lost all eight of their Pro League matches so far against Netherlands, Argentina, Australia and Germany and are bottom of the nine teams.In four months, they are due to travel to Egypt for the final qualifying tournament for the World Cup.
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