He was the oldest of three children of Lala Gurdas Ram sahni from his second wife who died within a month of giving birth to his sister, Nando (Nand Rani), eight years younger to him in 1924.
P. N. Sahni took over stewardship of the Indian Hockey Federation in 1973 at a time when conflicts broke out between its Northern and Southern wings.
[6] The Indian Hockey scene was marked by excellence until 1973 when Ashwani Kumar the then president stepped down followed by a spell of chaos in the organization.
He nevertheless managed to steer the board in a way so as to improve overall availability of electricity in the province much needed for the then rapidly industrializing Haryana state of Northern India.
During his tenure, Haryana achieved 100% village electrification [11] He died in 1990 in Mumbai from a sudden cardiac arrest while on a brief visit to that city to witness a cricket match.