Federations will have to perform if they wish to get PSB support: Fahmida

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Inter Provincial Coordination (IPC) Dr Fahmida Mirza believes that sports federations will have to deliver if they want Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) to support them.

“While living within our limited resources we’ll also support the federations, who are still far behind from the required level of promoting their respective sports.

But if they expect that PSB will dole out millions of rupees to them whereas their performance at the international level is very poor then it will not be possible,” the minister, who is also President of PSB told APP.

She said currently 19 federations had been identified, which would be supported by the board.

“We’ve decided to support these (19) federations, keeping in view their performance.

“We’ll have to revive sports culture and for that we will back only those federations, who are involving youth in sports activities,” she added.

Fahmida said that the fake federations whose aim was just to make money would no longer be able to exist when there would be no support from the PSB.

She observed that there had been a great setback to the sports activities in the past and owing to that almost every sport had taken a reverse gear.

“I believe we will have to revive sports culture and for that we must promote sports at the grassroots level.”

She said that after the 18th amendment sports had become a provincial subject adding that it was the responsibility of provinces to take steps for promoting sports in their areas.

“They (provinces) will have to play their role. They will have to take sports to the school level to gauge aptitude of future players for different games.

“The kids at the school level themselves show their interest whether they want to play tennis, football, hockey, cricket or any other game.

Hence, it is imperative that school encourage them and make sports an essential part of their curriculum,” she added.

The minister said that it had been decided to hold a sports diplomacy conference in next couple of months to find out ways for promoting a healthy sports culture in the country.

“The work to hold the conference is at the initial stage.

I want this conference to be of international level wherein sports experts from other countries will also be invited.

Hopefully, we’ll be able to hold this by the end of August or early September,” she added. She expressed the hope that sports experts and professionals at the conference would give valuable inputs, which would help prepare a comprehensive roadmap for promoting a healthy sports culture in the country.