10 November 2004	Wednesday	26 Ramazan 1425

LAHORE, Nov 9: Pakistan Judo Federation (PJF) has signed an accord of "cooperation protocol" with its Iranian counterpart on Tuesday, according to PJF secretary Mahmood Naveed.

Mahmood explained that the accord would help in raising the standard of the game.

"The Iranians have recognised us in the game at world level and we hope their cooperation will help in producing top Judokas at least at the Asian level," he added.

He pointed out that in the past Pakistan and Iran had signed the same accord on karate which now had started showing good results at SAF level.

He said that under the accord Pakistan teams would take part in Iranian competitions.

Iran would also send their coaches and referees to hone the skills of their Pakistani counterparts.

Commenting on other activities, the secretary said that the Olympic Solidarity Course would be held in Lahore from Nov 20 for which a foreign coach would be appointed.

The national championships will be staged in December and in the same month, a team of selected players would visit Iran for participating in the Al-Fajr international tournament, he added.

From January 2005, preparations would begin to select a team for the forthcoming SAF Games to be staged in Sri Lanka.

He criticised the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) for suspending PJF's annual grant two years ago under the pretext of national sports policy.

He clarified that PJF officials had not completed two terms of four years each but PSB had stopped the grant along with other sports federations.

He disclosed that the grant was merely Rs 60,000 annually and that was why the PJF's activities could not be promoted.