Shahbaz Ahmed Senior resigned from his post of Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) secretary as he could not give enough time to the federation due to his "assignment with PIA (Pakistan International Airlines)", PHF President Khalid Sajjad Khokhar said on Saturday.

In a video statement, Khokhar said that he had accepted Shahbaz's resignation and announced former Olympian Asif Bajwa as his replacement.

Lauding Shahbaz's services for the PHF, Khokhar said: "He (Shahbaz) spent about three-and-a-half years with me and worked beyond his [mandated] capacity."

Attempts by DawnNewsTV to reach Shahbaz for a comment were unsuccessful.

Bajwa — who had resigned from the post of PHF secretary in 2013 — will take charge of his office on Monday, Khokhar said.

Shahbaz had turned in his resignation in December last year as well after Pakistan’s dismal show at the Hockey World Cup in India where they finished 11th. In his resignation letter, he had cited the government's alleged apathy towards hockey and said that there was no infrastructure for the national sport in the country. He had further said that the PHF had no asset or a system in place for the generation of funds.

The PHF had then turned down his resignation, however.