Pakistan fine hockey star and officials for ‘hugging woman’
National field hockey team player Rehan Butt was fined 100,000 rupees (€815) while coach Shahid Ali Khan and manager Asif Bajwa were fined 50,000 rupees (€415) each, the chairman of the National Assembly’s standing committee on sports said.
“Islamic culture does not allow us to hug a lady and have alcohol,” committee chairman Jamshed Ahmed Dasti said. “The players are ambassadors of their country and they should remember this well.”
Pakistan team members took pictures with the liaison officer during the official players’ night at the end of the tournament.
The dinner was also attended by other participating teams and their officials. Pakistan lost the final to New Zealand, costing them a place in the Champions Trophy.
Pictures run by a Pakistani television channel and posted on the internet showed one of the men hugging a woman and another apparently drinking a beer.
Another picture showed a group of men sitting at a table with glasses in front of them, apparently containing alcohol.
Bajwa said the woman in the photograph was a tournament liaison officer.
“All officials and players considered her as our sister,” Bajwa said before the fines were imposed.
The pictures were taken at the end of the tournament, after Pakistan lost in the final to New Zealand, and the woman had put the pictures on her Facebook page, he said.
Dasti warned coach Khan not to get involved in such activities in future.
“If I would have to take the decision you all could have ended up in a lock up after the team returned home,” he said. “Don’t get yourselves involved in such parties in future tournaments abroad.”
Khan acknowledged the warning, adding: “I agree with the committee members that some pictures were objectionable and it should have been avoided.”
Butt – who is due to compete in the World Cup in India next month and last appeared on Irish shores during the Setanta Sports Trophy tournament in Dublin in June 2008 – escaped a heavier punishment, as Dasti proposed to ban the forward from the national team.
“He is our key player for the World Cup and it would deal us a severe blow if you ban him,” pleaded Irfan Khokhar, chief co-ordinator of the PHF.
One of the female members of the committee, Nasim Akhtar Chaudhry, was furious after seeing the pictures.
“We live in an Islamic country,” she said. “We have our own traditions, our own culture which should be portrayed abroad.
“We didn’t shake hands with males when our women parliamentary delegation visited the US last year and here they are giving a hug to a lady.”
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