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| June 12, 2005 | Sunday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 4, 1426 |
Police ground in shambles
KARACHI, June 11: The famous police ground on Garden Road which boasts of some sporting activities is in a dilapidated condition due to lack of maintenance and apathy by high officials concerned. “The ground which had given a good number of players to the country in the yester years, is unfortunately used from time to time for purposes other than sports instead of reviving the glorious past,” a survey conducted by Dawn reveals.
The entire playing area which consists of hockey and football grounds and a basketball court is in a shambles. In the absence of a proper boundary wall around the field, it also serves as a passage for police and even private vehicles.
The survey shows that 57 sportsmen were presently enrolled in regular cadre in different teams. Of these, two are ASI’s, three head constables and the rest are constables. No regular employment was made after 1992. For most of the time the sportsmen get duties instead of being spared on sports basis as was the practice in past.
Hockey, football, cricket, basketball, shooting ball, volleyball, weightlifting, karate, handball and gymnastics are some of the teams which still exist in the department. Four teams namely athletics, tug-of-war, judo and taekwondo have been disbanded.
The police sports comes under welfare department and its head, an AIG, used to be the chief sports officer. Presently, Mr Munir Sheikh is at the helm of affairs.
He is assisted by two sports officers. One looks after Sindh Police and the other Capital City Police. At present, the charges of provincial and city police are held by Inspector Ejazuddin and Inspector Arif Hayat, respectively.
Golden era: Period from 1964 to 1974 and 1978 to 1988 can be termed as ‘golden era’ in the history of Sindh police sports. In the first period, Syed Muhammad was SP headquarters.
He was lucky to have a dedicated official in Cyril Almeida and the two had done the spadework. Olympian DSP (retd) late Akhtar Hussain, former international athlete, DSP (retd) Syed Abid Hussain were among other stalwarts who opted for police service on sports basis.
DSP (retd) Afzal Ahmad, DSP (retd) Riaz Qureshi, DSP Saeed Ahmad (hockey) and Inspector Naseem Ahmad (football) whose services for departmental sports are still admired, were inducted in the first period.
Almeida, himself a good hockey player, suffered a stroke and died while watching his daughter playing a hockey match at the Hockey Club of Pakistan stadium more than two decades back. There was another Christian police officer, Ralph Brooks who too served as sports officer for some time after 1974.
The second glorious period revolves around SP headquarters, Sirajuddin, a former hockey player, and sports officer, Abid Hussain. The two worked day and night to take the standard of police sports to new heights.
While the former exercised his powers and recruited a large number of athletes, the latter used his potential in arranging activities at police ground and ensured participation of departmental teams in different competitions.
This yielded fruitful results and produced many players like Ejazuddin, Ahmad Hasan, Shoaib Rifat, Zulqarnain, Maqsood Akhtar, Ali Mehdi (hockey), Rao Ehsan, Liaquat Ali (football) Gulzar (athletics) and Ehsan (basketball).
Nawab Hussain used to manage the police cricket team with the blessings of Asad Ashraf Malik, who is also a good cricketer. Inspector (retd) Jehandad Khan’s contribution to sports is laudable. The sports department also had the blessings of Muhammad Akbar and Saleem Wahidi from time to time.
Police boys’ hockey team was founded on April 4, 1977 providing a platform to policemen to use the ground facility. The team which was a brainchild of Iqrar Baig, son of a policeman, entered numerous competitions and proved its mettle.
Abid’s contribution: Abid, recipient of President’s Pride of Performance Medal (PPM) for gallantry, stand tall as he remained associated with department’s sports throughout his 38-year career.
During his tenure, Sindh used to dictate terms in a couple of Pakistan police competitions. Abid, who represented Pakistan in 400m at an international athletics meet at Tehran in 1959, retired in 2001.
A senior official on condition of anonymity has demanded two percent sports quota in jobs and proper funds if the department wants to regain its lost pride. Physical fitness is part of police service and the sportsmen who fulfil the requirements should be given a chance.
Secondly, sports fund is deducted from the salaries of 35,000 employees in Karachi right from constable to the rank of IG but it is not spent properly and the sports department has to function on self-help basis, he remarked.
The then AIGP Welfare, Hussain Asghar, had issued a circular dated Feb 4, 2003, pertaining to the promotion of sports in Sindh police, in which he admitted that the standard of sports had gone down and offered various suggestions but in vain.
The sports department has chalked out a Rs80 million project to convert the existing area into a multi-purpose sports complex having facilities of Astro Turf, tartan track, floodlit facility, hostel, gymnasium etc. The plan awaits a green signal from the top brass as the money would be raised from the private sector.
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