All-Pakistan Inter-University Men and Women Athletic Championship carrying more than 1,000 male and female athletes from 50 universities affiliated with Higher Education Commission got under way here at the Tartan Track of the Qayyum Sports Complex on Tuesday.
It is for the first time in his history that Directorate of Sports University of Peshawar under the supervision of DG HEC is hosting Athletic Meet participating by both male and female athletes. Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pervez Khattak graced the occasion as chief guest and formally announced the commencement of the Athletic Meet to be continued till March 3, 2016.
Minister for Sports, Culture, Youth Affairs Mehmood Khan, Special Assistant to the Chief Minister on Higher Education Mushtaq Ghani, DG Sports HEC Farman Ullah Anjum, VV UoP Prof. Dr. Rasul Jan, former World Champion Qamar Zaman, Secretary General Asian Sports Writers Federation Amjad Aziz Malik, Deputy Director Sports HEC Kalim Baloch, Deputy Director Sports KP Adil Safi, DG Sports Miss Rashida Ghaznavi, Organising Secretary U0P Bahre Karam, Director Meet Farooq Hussain, officials were also present. The ceremony was started with the recitation from the Holy Quran, followed by a smart March Past of the teams on the tone of melodious police band. The teams also took oath, followed by declaration of the meet open by Chief Minister KP Pervez Khattak. Balloons, pigeons were also released.
In his speech Chief Minister KPK Pervez Khattak lauded the efforts of UoP for holding the event in a befitting manner. He said the government is striving hard for ensuring equal opportunities to both male and female players and that is why a record number of sports activities have been in the pipeline during the year-2016.
He said government has allocated Rs75 million for the sports activities at district and division levels for both male and female besides work on 37 news grounds would be completed in a month time while total 48 grounds would hand over by the end of the this year to all districts.
He said Rs700 million have been allocated for the up-gradation of Arbab Niaz Cricket Stadium. Establishment of Cricket Academy, lying of ratification hockey turfs at Bannu and Kohat. He also announced approval of laying Tartan track for Athletic in University of Peshawar. He said the government is very keen in involving the youth in healthy activities and that is why mega projects have been initiated to ensure them due facilities. He said Rs4 million has been allocated for purchasing new playing gears so that the players would be provided much updated equipments.
At end, VC UoP awarded a shield to the chief minister, Director General Sports HEC, and renowned sports journalist Amjad Aziz Malik for his dedicated work for the promotion of sports in the province. Earlier, in the opening day event Waqar Younis of UCP clocked 1.5.90sec got gold medal, Umar Sadat PU cloched 1.55.28sec, Asmat Ullah PU got bronze3 medal by clocking 1.50.10sec, in shot put Antash UCP got gold medal, followed by Huzran of PU and Saif Ullah of UoP, in 400 Women race Musarat of Sargodha got first, followed by Almas of Iqra University Karachi and Besma of LCWU.