Pakistan’s hockey great Munir Ahmed Dar passed away here on Tuesday after a prolonged battle with lung cancer.
Born on March 28, 1936, Munir Dar breathed his last after spending days under doctors’ care and on June 1, 2011, he breathed his last. He was suffering from lungs cancer. On Wednesday morning after fajr prayers his soul departed and later he was buried at Defence graveyard. His qul will be held on Thursday at 5 pm at Allah-o-Akbar Mosque E Block Phase I DHA.
The Olympics and Asian gold medalist and two time Olympics silver medal winner Dar was widely known as a stylish defender, very hard to beat. In his 10 years hockey career from 1956-66, Munir Dar won gold medals in 1960 Rome Olympics and Tokyo’s 1958 Asian Games while his silver medals came in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and 1964 Olympics. He played 92 matches in his career and in all those years he hit 41 goals. Munir Dar was not only proficient in the game but also carried immense knowledge of other sports and supervised many sports federations of the country. He was also an active official of the Punjab Olympics Association, council member of Pakistan Rugby Union, held top posts in games like karate, taekwndo and judo. He also did running commentary on hockey matches and currently he was chief of the Lahore Race Club Jockeys Federation.
He was known as one of the greatest Olympians of all times. Besides Munir, his brother Tanvir Dar and as well as son Touqeer Dar won medals in Asia, World Cup and Olympic medals for Pakistan. He was on Wednesday buried in the presence of many dignitaries. Prominent among those were Justice (retd) Kh Sharif, former PCB chairman Khalid Mahmood, Olympian Khawaja Zakauddin, Akhtar Rasool, former PHF secretary Brig (retd) Musarrat, Fawzi Khawaja, Arif Saeed, Pervaiz Mir and Kh Idris Haider. Munir played most of his career as a left back, and was the architect of many victories. With his astonishing reach and great clearance, he was difficult to beat, and opponents dreaded him as a tackler. On the field he was an asset but that did not diminish his value off it, for he possessed a cheerful temperament, keeping the team’s spirits high. A long time after his retirement as a DIG in the police, Munir maintained his sunny disposition, always quick to crack a joke. It is a point of conjecture whether it was his distaste for hockey or his love for the race horses which kept him away from the game.
I was so very sad to hear about his passing away. Munir Dar uncle was very close to my father, our family and me. Besides being a very close relative, he was my father's colleague for a very long time in police department. They both served in the police for almost 40 years and played hockey and controlled the sports affairs together.Uncle Munir was very kind to me and always was there when I needed him for anything. He was a very popular figure in the country and international hockey.His contributions as apolice officer, player and offical are respected and acknowledged. It is a tragic thing that he left all of us to mourn him today and for the rest of our lives.
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