May 01, 2007	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 13, 1428

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LAHORE, April 30: The Punjab Olympic Association (POA) has made a complaint to the National Olympic Association (NOA) against the Sindh Olympic Association (SOA) for making poor arrangements for the 30th National Games that were held in Karachi last month.

POA secretary Khawaja Idris Hayder lashed out at his Sindh counterparts while awarding certificates at a ceremony on Monday to the participants of the IOC Olympics Solidarity Cycling Coaches Course which was held from April 21 to 30.

Idris held poor arrangements responsible for weak performance of Punjab's athletes as the province relegated to sixth place from third.

“I have written a letter to the Pakistan Olympic Association expressing in detail all the problems the Punjab contingent had faced during the games,” Idris said.

“We had organised inter-provincial games twice and I can claim their standard was 100 times better than the 30th National Games,” he said.

Later, when contacted, NOA secretary Abdul Khaliq Khan said that he had talked to Sindh sports minister Qamar Mansoor on the issue.

“Qamar told me that he has not received the expected grant from the Sindh government and the bills of various hotels are still pending," Khaliq said.

“So far we have received only Rs20 million from the Pakistan Sports Trust," Khaliq said while quoting Qamar.

There are reports that the budget of the National Games had never been exceeded to Rs20 million in the past.

Meanwhile, all the 30 coaches who had participated in the course received certificates from Punjab sports secretary Naveed Akram Cheema.

Naveed announced that construction of a swimming pool of the international standard would start in next 15 days at the Nishtar Park at a cost of Rs159 million.