Zakir Hussain Syed, the former director general of the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB), said that not given enough help had been to sports and only hockey offers a realistic hope of a medal at London.

 

 

He said: "This is a complete failure of the PSB as incompetent officials are managing the highly technical job of the National Federation’s wing.

 

"The Prime Minister in 1997 has clearly issued a directive that the board needed an immediate restructuring and now it is up to Federal Sports Minister Pir Aftab Shah Jilani to restructure collapsing sports institution of the country."

 

Zakir clamed that Pir Aftab, also the President of the PSB, should intervene in the administration of several sports, which he alleged were poorly run.

 

They have already declared that the national rowing federation is now a "defunct body" after they allegedly held elections that were not transparent.

 

The Government launched an inquiry last September after the hockey team's poor performance at the Olympics in Beijing.

 

The team, tipped to challenge for a medal in the Chinese capital, comprised 16 of Pakistan's team of 21 in Beijing and finished a disappointing eighth, their worst ever performance.

Pakistan, the sixth biggest country in the world with a population of 173 million, has only ever won three Olympic gold medals since making its debut in the Games at London in 1948.

All of them have come in hockey, the last of which was at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984.

The last occasion they won an Olympic medal was when they took the bronze in the hockey tournament at the 1992 Games in Barcelona.

 

Zakir hit out at General Arif Hasan, the President of the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA), who he claimed had invested too much money and resources into hockey.

 

He said: "Gen Hasan is sitting on such an important position for the last seven years.

 

"Can anyone ask him if this is the promotion of Olympic Charter that we are looking only at hockey to win medal at the London Olympics.

 

"If we are supposed to reach the podium only through hockey, then there is no need of investing a huge amount of money in the upcoming National Games at Peshawar.

 

"The Sports Minister should take necessary action to rescue the arrest of sports in Pakistan."