Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has banned Olympian Rashid-ul-Hasan for 10 years for allegedly using abusive language against Prime Minister Imran Khan. Rashid has denied the claims of PHF and stated that he did criticize PM Imran for the state of Pakistan Hockey but he never used abusive language against him.
Rashid has stated that he is considering challenging the ban in court. Rashid said that he has always maintained decorum while criticizing PM Imran on social media but he has never used any kind of abusive language to address him.
PHF president retired Brig Khalid Sajjad Khokhar and secretary Asif Bajwa issued the details behind the matter in a press release. Earlier, PHF had set an inquiry committee to look into the matter. Rashid was given two notices in this regard but his failure to respond led to a ten-year ban. A copy of the notification issued by the PHF has been sent to National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Sports.
In his defense, Rashid stated that he has highly criticized PM Imran for his failure to take adequate steps to revive Hockey in the country but using abusive language against him is out of the question.
“On a WhatsApp group I only said that on the container though Imran Khan was claiming that he would put the game of hockey on the right track, nothing came on the surface during the last three years. And I also said Imran will not do any good work for hockey,” Rashid remarked.
Gold Medalist Olympian said that he is surprised by the ten-year ban on him as he is not currently holding any position in the PHF and he did not consider the notifications seriously because he did not use any abusive language.
