Hockey was originally brought to Pakistan under British rule, and like cricket soon became popular with the local population.
The Pakistan Hockey Federation came into being in 1948, following the independence and partition into Pakistan and India. Prior to this players from what is now Pakistan had competed internationally alongside players from what is now India. In the beginning, the Federation's membership included the Provincial Hockey/Sports Associations of West Punjab, East Bengal, Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Bahawalpur & Services Sports Board. Pakistan played their first international in London when they defeated Belgium 2-1 in 14th Olympic Games hockey tournament on 2 August 1948.
The first President of PHF was Raja Ghazanfar Ali Khan with Baseer Ali Sheikh as Honorary Secretary. The Pakistan national side soon established a strong reputation in international competition, helping to mainatin interest in the game in Pakistan which assisted the growth of the Federation. However, no full-time central office or secretariat, as such, was established until the 1960s.
The office of the Pakistan Hockey Federation, located in National Hockey Stadium, Lahore, Lahore, was developed into a Secretariat in 1971. It was during the second term as president of Air Marshal M. Nur Khan from 1978 that Pakistani hockey entered something of a golden age. National Senior, National Junior and Women Hockey Teams were all competing internationally, increasing the work load of PHF Office and secretary Brigadier M.H.Atif tremendously.
On the personal initiative of Air Marshal M. Nur Khan, the FIH introduced the World Cup Tournament and the Champions Trophy Tournament, which are now rated amongst the major international tournaments, alongside the Olympics. At this time, Pakistan held all the major titles in men's international hockey.
However, the 1976 Olympics in Montreal had seen the introduction of artificial turf to international hockey competition. Pakistan was unable to build as many of the new pitches as the European nations or Australia and New Zealand and so the strength of the national side declined. It was after a lapse of 12 years that the Pakistan Hockey Team again started climbing and won the Champions Trophy and the World Cup with Air Vice Marshal Farooq Umar as president and Colonel Mudassar as secretary of the Federation.
The PHF has provincial teams who play against each other such as:-
In recent times, the Pakistan Hockey Team has seen some lacklustre performances and has failed to win a major hockey tournament since the 1994 World Cup, mainly due to lack of proper nurturing of youth, administrative problems, increasing apathy towards the game by public in favour of cricket, and unstable player-coach relationships.
