The matter was referred to the FIH disciplinary commission at the end of February and an update was provided at  the Federation's recent Executive Board meeting in Lausanne.

The FIH was obliged to make numerous adjustments in the schedule of its new competition, now involving eight teams, which was launched on January 19 and will conclude with men’s and women’s finals in Amsterdam from June 27 to 30.

The Pakistan Hockey Federation President Brig Khalid Sajjad Khokhar told thenews.com: “The matter is with the disciplinary commission right now.

“We are making all our efforts to avoid a ban or any penalty as we believe it was out of our hands.”

He said that the PHF had received a letter from the FIH "regarding our viewpoint on our inability to play the first phase of the league".

“We are in the process of finalising the details and in a few days - possibly by March 22 - the FIH will get Pakistan’s point of view on the matter," he said.

Shortly after Pakistan’s withdrawal was announced, FIH chief executive Thierry Weil criticised the PHF for giving the organisation late notice of their inability to take part in their first three matches.

"It is regretful that Pakistan has decided only now to withdraw from the first games of the FIH Pro League," Weil said.

"Consequently, FIH were left with no other option than suspending Pakistan from the rest of the competition’s season.”

Teams which wanted to participate in the event had to give financial assurances to the FIH as part of the selection process.

Pakistan had been scheduled to play all their Pro League games away from home due to security issues in the country, which Weil admitted had contributed to financial concerns at the PHF, after a deal to stage their matches in Scotland collapsed.

The extensive travel is thought to have contributed to the financial problems for the PHF.

Appeals to the Government from the PHF for financial assistance to ensure they could take part were ignored.

Meanwhile, the International Olympic Committee President, Thomas Bach, has praised the FIH gender equality policy as a “role model”.

Bach made his comment while attending the Executive Board meeting to receive the FIH President’s Award.

He had been due to collect the award at the FIH Congress in New Delhi last November but was unable to travel due to other commitments.

FIH has undertaken remarkable efforts for the good of hockey, in order to make the sport more global and more attractive,” Bach said.

"The FIH Pro League is one example of that and after only a couple of weeks, it’s already a success.

"Sport plays a fundamental role in society and I would like to commend FIH for its gender equality policy, which really is best practice - a role model for many International Federations."

FIH President, Dr Narinder Dhruv Batra, said: "We are also very honoured that the IOC has chosen women’s hockey as one of the four sports it will focus on ahead of Tokyo 2020 to, hopefully, have unified Korean teams participating in the Olympic Games.

"This objective is very dear to our heart as well, because we believe that hockey can contribute to making the world a better place.”