July 01, 2007	Sunday	Jamadi-us-Sani 15, 1428

LAHORE, June 30: Sindh Sports Minister Qamar Mansoor faced tough time in the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) general council meeting, held here on Saturday, as many members criticised the poor arrangements made by him during the 30th National Games held in Karachi in April.

NWFP Olympic Committee president Syed Aqil Shah called the games as worst ever saying there were a number of flaws in the arrangements.

Punjab Olympic Association secretary Khawaja Idrees hit out at the poor accommodation provided to his contingent. He said the Punjab contingent had to wait on roads for hours as no hotel was booked for them.

Pakistan Judo Federation secretary Mahmood Naveed said the Pakistan Sports Trust had given Rs20 million while the Sindh government provided Rs10 million to the organisers. The POA should interrogate the Sindh sports minister about details of the expenditure.

Moreover, the next National Games have been allocated to the NWFP and will be held after two years, POA president Arif Hasan told a press conference later.

Arif said the meeting discussed 12-point agenda and took a number of decisions to uplift the standard of sports.

“The general council showed consent over allotting the games to the NWFP and the flag of the games has been handed over to the NWFP Olympic Committee president Syed Aqil Shah,” he said.

Arif added the POA would make more strict rules and regulations for the next hosts of the games to avoid any mismanagement.

“A committee will be formed to monitor hosts’ preparations for the Games besides getting assurance from the hosts’ province if it could generate enough funds to hold the games in proper manner,” he said.

“The final decision to allow the hosts to hold the games will be taken only six months before start of the games on recommendation of the committee,” he said.

The POA president said the house had approved model constitution in line with the POA constitution to improve working of all national sports federations.