September 24, 2008	Wednesday	Ramazan 23, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Sept 23: A senate body on Tuesday called for making all sports federations including the Pakistan Cricket Board accountable to the Ministry of Sports.

A sub-committee of the Senate Standing Committee on Sports, in a set of recommendations proposed ways and means to prevent decline of sports in country, said the Ministry of Sports should take measures for bringing legislations in that regard in collaboration with the Ministry of Law.

The committee proposed that the government interference in the affairs of the sports institutions and federations would result in complications; therefore the government at all levels should avoid this practice.

Senator Enver Baig, convener of the sub-committee, told Dawn that “on the floor of the Parliament it’s the sports minister who is answerable to the house so we recommended that all the federations must be answerable to the Ministry of Sports”.

It was also recommended in the ten-page document that sports federations should be run by professionals who could spare time for the promotion of games.

The committee stressed that federations should generate their own funds by getting sponsorships.

About the sports policy, the committee was of the view that the policy should be rewritten after getting feedback from the principle stakeholders including the Pakistan Olympic Association and sports federations.

It added that sports policy should be reviewed after every four years and necessary changes should be made in it after taking stakeholders into confidence.

The committee recommended that job incentives should be given to the players, especially of hockey and squash, to enhance their performance.

Regarding grants to the sports federations, it said that grants should be released in one go rather than in installments and their utilisation should be monitored by the Ministry of Sports.