Ijaz kakakhel Islamabad
The Senate Standing Committee on Inter-Provincial Coordination on Wednesday honored Pakistani Olympian athletes Talha Talib, Weightlifer and Arshad Nadeem, Javelin Thrower.
These people were invited by the committee, which held today while Senator Mian Raza Rabbani was on chair.
At the onset, Committee appreciated the performance of Pakistani Olympian athletes Talha Talib, Weightlifer and Arshad Nadeem, Javelin Thrower, lauded their struggles to reach at this level of excellence and wished them best for the future endeavours.
The Olympians thanked the Committee for invitation and voiced their concerns and difficulties being faced by them during training and performance at the Olympics.
The concern of abolishing the departmental sports was highlighted by them. Committee strongly recommended that until the implementation of new Sports Policy; the Ministry must ensure that athletes associated with various departments don’t go jobless and face financial issues.
Committee discussed the approach of Ministry to discourage the departmental sports system. Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination, Dr. Fehmida Mirza clarified that departmental sports are not being abolished however under the new Sports policy the regional sports shall be encouraged.
Ministry officials informed the committee members that departments are being told to support any of the regional teams rather than creating their own departmental team.
Regional system is being implemented as per the vision of the Prime Minister of Pakistan. Committee was informed that Prime Minister is of the view that selection for departmental teams is not based on Merit and regional sports teams get more following and interest from the people.
Senator Mushtaq Ahmed was of the view that this shift from departmental system to regional should not be done in haste and all the aspects need to be considered before going ahead with this radical change.
Chairman Committee said that proposed Sports Policy shall be taken up again during the proposed in-camera meeting.
Chairman Committee also appointed a three member sub-committee to look into the working functions and constitutions of 41 sports federations in Pakistan.
