Artistic Olympian Ashfaq passes away

Mohammad Ashfaq, once the peerless playmaker of Pakistan hockey team, breathed his last at CMH here on Sunday morning. He was 58. Nicknamed "Fukku", the hockey Olympian was one of the inspirational players in Pakistan team's gold-medal victory at the Mexico City Olympics in 1968.
He had been admitted at CMH but couldn't survive the hepatitis ailment. He leaves behind two sons, as many daughters, widow and countless admirers and fans to mourn his death.
He was later buried at the Lalazar graveyard, near 502 workshop, just a few hundred yards away from the house where he was born in the fateful year of 1947.
After early schooling in his native city of Rawalpindi, Mohammad Ashfaq rose to be one of the greatest inside-right forwards Pakistan hockey has produced.
The President of Pakistan Olympic Association, Lieutenant General Syed Arif Hasan, and Director General of Pakistan Sports Board, Brig. Arif Mehmud Siddiqui, paid rich tributes to the services of the late Muhammad Ashfaq for Pakistan hockey.
"He was a spectacular hockey player whose artistic dribbling and slick stick-work is still remembered by those who watched him in action" said General Arif Hasan.
The DG PSB said late Mohammad Ashfaq was one of those players who were the conjurers and player-makers of their time in the 60s and 70s.
Mohammad Ashfaq was member of the Pakistan hockey team that won all the three main titles of that time triumphing at Mexico City in 1968 and following it up with victory at Asian Games at Bangkok in 1970 and then clinching the inaugural World Cup at Terassa (Spain) in 1971.
But the crowning glory he helped bring for the national hockey team was in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics when he was acknowledged as the unique playmaker who kept the whole forward-line on its toes.
Together with his skipper Asad Malik, who played as inside left, it was Mohammad Ashfaq at the inside-right position, who was instrumental in getting the bulk of Pakistan's 28 goals at Mexico City Olympics.
Prolific scorer Abdul Rashid Jr. got most of his goals at Mexico City Olympics after the spadework had been done by Mohammad Ashfaq and Asad Malik.
Ashfaq and Asad, along with right-half Saeed Anwar and centre-half Muhammad Riaz, were the four Pakistani players who were among the world's best eleven picked up by a neutral jury during the Mexico City Olympics.