SSUET prodigy Haseem Khan to lead Pakistan’s hockey team

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi 
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Another feather was added to the cap of the Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology (SSUET), Karachi, as one of its former students, Abdul Haseem Khan, has been appointed as the captain of Pakistan’s hockey team for the upcoming tours of Australia and New Zealand.

A student of electronic engineering batch 2006 at the SSUET, Haseem Khan will be leading Pakistan on the twin tours, due to start from the third week of March. He had earlier also captained Pakistan’s junior team. 

Pakistan will play a total of nine international matches, five in New Zealand and four in Australia. The tours are part of Pakistan’s preparations for the World Cup qualifying rounds to be held in June in London. 

According to the squad announced by the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF), Abdul Haseem Khan and Mohammad Umar Bhutta will be the captain and the vice-captain respectively with the other members being Mohammad Irfan Junior, Ali Shan, Ajaz Ahmed, Mohammad Dilber, Mohammad Azfar Yaqoob, Mohammad Arslan Qadir, Umair Sarfraz, Amjad Ali, Mazhar Abbas, Ammad Shakeel Butt, Mohammad Aleem Bilal, Nawaz Ashfaq, Abu Bakr Mahmood, Tasawar Abbas, Tazeem-ul-Hassan, Mohammad Rizwan Junior, Mohammad Atif Mushtaq and Mohammad Faisal Qadir.

The SSUET Chancellor, Jawaid Anwar, Vice-Chancellor, Prof Dr Jawed H Rizvi, Registrar, Syed Sarfraz Ali, Convenor Aligarh Institute of Technology (AIT) Anwar Ali, General Secretary AMUOBA Arshad Khan, Convenor Sports Waqar Javed Bukhari, Director Sports, Mubbashir Mukhtar, and other university officials have felicitated him on his appointment as the national captain. 

Haseem Khan had also captained the SSUET' hockey team with distinction in various tournaments, specially the final victory over University of Karachi.  

The institutional support of the SSUET also encouraged and motivated him as he was awarded a gold medal and Rs 100,000 cash prize along with a scholarship for his education in recognition of his services to the national hockey team. 

He was a part of the gold-medal winning Pakistan team at the 16th Asian Games in China in 2010. 

He had earlier made headlines with his scintillating performance at the Asia Cup in Malaysia in 2009.