All the stakeholders need to come on the same page to promote sports as neither the government, national sports federations nor the Pakistan Olympic Association alone could achieve this huge objective, POA president Lt Gen (r) Syed Arif Hasan said here Friday night. Arif said this while addressing a gathering at the POA offices to honour the Balochistan, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa athletes who were in Lahore to compete in the 72nd Punjab Games as a sign of solidarity among the four provinces. The Punjab Games concluded on Saturday. The Punjab Olympic Association has invited 15 athletes each from the three provinces to feature in the Punjab Games. “Anybody through Google search can get the information what governments of all the countries of the world are doing for their athletes’ participation in the Olympics and the Asian Games; and how much they are spending on their sportspersons to earn medals,” the POA chief added.
“Every government across the globe has an integral part in promoting sports and sportspersons. Let me know a single country where its National Olympic Committee is preparing or coaching athletes,” he asked. “It is the prime duty of the governments to invest in sportspersons and the POA has the mandate to give its athletes a way to compete in international competitions,” Arif maintained.
To a question, Arif said he was ready to meet Federal Minister for Inter Provincial Coordination (IPC) Fehimda Mirza, adding there might be some misunderstanding that he did not want to hold a meeting with the Federal Minister. Noting that this year’s South Asian Games were scheduled to be held in Nepal in December, the POA chief said a meeting with the IPC Minister was very important for devising a strategy on holding training camps. It may be mentioned here that the government has taken a stance that the POA and the national sports federations are independent bodies, that’s why they are required to prepare teams for international competitions.
This approach of the government, however, has cut off the connection between the national sports federations and the government. For this very reason, the national sports federations have not received their annual grants for 2018-19 yet.