ISLAMABAD: A National Assembly panel on Wednesday appreciated the outstanding performance of Pakistani athletes for winning two gold, three silver, and three bronze medals in the recent Commonwealth Games held in Birmingham.
The National Assembly Standing Committee on Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) met with MNA Nawab Sher in the chair to discuss the performance of the ministry and its attached departments.
While discussing the outstanding performance of Pakistani athletes in the recently-held Commonwealth Games, the committee appreciated the performance of the Pakistani players for winning two gold, three silver, and three bronze medals in the games.
The committee also appreciated the announcement of cash prizes of Rs5 million, Rs2 million and Rs1 million to the winners of gold, silver, and bronze medals respectively which would encourage them to continue their sports activities and help to promote sports culture in Pakistan.
The committee, however, directed the IPC Ministry to hold a meeting with the respective government functionaries of all the provinces to groom the talent of Pakistani players at the grassroots level, particularly, schools and colleges level so that they could compete at the international level.
The panel also expressed its grave concern over the poor performance of Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) as the ranking of Pakistan Hockey Team declined from six to 18 out of 20 in the world due to a lack of dedication and mismanagement of the previous management of the PHF.
The committee unanimously passed a resolution, urging Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, being patron-in-chief, to appoint a senior technocrat to ensure transparency in the upcoming elections of the PHF so that Pakistan hockey could advance in a prompt way.
The committee also recommended a third-party audit of the PHF to check the financial irregularities made by the previous management so that culprits could be penalized accordingly.
The committee while sharing the proposals for the revival of Pakistan hockey with ex-Olympians had directed that they might submit a summary to the committee to remove deficiencies in the existing system so that committee could take them at appropriate forum for their amicable solution.
The committee also expressed concern over the non-cooperative and irresponsible attitude of the officials of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) as they were unable to satisfy the committee with their presentation. The committee, therefore, decided to hold its next meeting in Lahore to discuss the overall performance of the PCB.
Earlier, Federal Minister for IPC Ehsan Mazari and senior officials of the ministry apprised the committee about the efforts made by the ministry to promote sports and tourism in Pakistan and the problems faced in this regard.
The meeting was attended by Wajiha Qamar, Syeda Nosheen Iftikhar, Zulfiqar Ali, Rana Mubashir Iqbal, Nasiba Channa, Mahreen Razzaq Bhutto, Syed Mehmood Shah, and senior officers of the concerned departments.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.