July 31, 2002	Wednesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 20,1423

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LAHORE, July 30: Federal sports minister has sought the help of International Olympic Committee in implementing its Sports Policy-2001.

A letter was written by federal sports minister S. K Tressler to the IOC president Jacques Rogge. “A copy of the Sports Policy is enclosed for your kind information. Support from your organisation will go a long way in improving the standard of sports in our country”, the letter to the IOC president stated.

The sports ministry announced its policy on Feb 16, 2001 after approval from the cabinet.

However, the ministry committed a mistake by not notifying it, a procedure without which no order could be implemented. The  Pakistan Olympic Association has resorted to legal recourse over the matter.

Clarifying the government’s point of view on a clause restricting the president, secretary and treasurer to eight-year terms, the federal minister stated: “An emulation was drawn along the lines of and inspired by the IOC’s Charter’s clauses No.23 and 24, that stipulate an eight-year term for its office holders, in facilitating terms of offices for the office holders of national sporting organisations as well”.

Various office-bearers of the POA and the national sports federations are being affected by this clause, so it has become a bone of contention between them and the sports ministry.

The ministry claimed that all quarters concerned were taken into confidence before announcing the Sports Policy.

“I must emphasize that before the policy was granted approval, it was widely circulated across the country among all the sporting organisations, including the NOC and the provincial governments — the focal facilitating organs of sports structure in Pakistan inviting their views on the policy.

The policy was announced after extensive brainstorming sessions and taking into sincere consideration viewpoints of all components of the country’s sports”, the letter stated.

The federal ministry admitted that it had failed to implement the policy after a more than a year of its approval.

“An ample timeframe has been provided for the implementation of the policy-more than a year to be precise. As is evident from above you would appreciate that government of Pakistan is in no way infringing upon the autonomous status of the national sports bodies but its rather laying guidelines for improvement in the overall standard of sports as peculiar to our country’s environment”.

The federal minister accepted the autonomous status of the national sports bodies on one hand, but also threatened to get its policy implemented on the other.

“The government is not nominating any person to any sporting body, but on the other hand it is asking these bodies to reorganise themselves through their own mechanism.

The government will then have to intervene in helping local sportsmen to elect their representative bodies. Even in this case, the government representatives will only act in ways to assist the sports- persons,” the letter concluded.