First it postponed a much-touted attempt to set a world record of singing the national anthem just hours before the schedule; now it has delayed the ‘international youth festival’ till October or November. The Punjab Sports Board (PSB) has left a trail of ill-planning and embarrassment for the government.

Provincial Sports Minister Rana Mashhood says the festival was delayed till October because India and Afghanistan are busy in their elections. What about the remaining 38 countries out of 40, which the minister had said time and again, would take part in the international youth festival?

Sports circles claim the PSB is running short of funds.

The PSB had made itself a laughing stock by deferring the event of national anthem just hours ago. Millions spent on the arrangements went to waste. The postponement of the international event will embarrass the country at the international level.

The international festival was to start from April 12. The games with no following in Pakistan such as arm-wrestling, netball, fist-ball, touch-ball and mix martial were including in the festival. The only popular sports like football, hockey and boxing were part of the event.

Every one can guess how much money was to be spent on this so-called international event. The PSB spent around Rs9 million on low-profile games between the Punjab teams of India and Pakistan last month. Men and women kabaddi teams of the two Punjabs played one match each, while some wrestling ties were also held. Visitors completed the tour in four days. Though it has not shared the details of budget, the Punjab government had allocated two per cent of the budget from tehsil to provincial level for the sports festival. The festival was of a low quality. Had it spent even 10 per cent of the total expenditure on a well planned horse and cattle show, the Punjab government would have made a good show.

The organisations, part of the international festival, are disappointed at the postponement of the event. They say that on their invitation many foreign teams had started training camps for the competition and they had also arranged flights to travel Pakistan.

The action of the PSB entails grave consequences.

“Our credibility is at stake; we’ll face troubles in the future to convince them to come to Pakistan,” an official of the national sports federation on the condition of the anonymity told Dawn.

No official of national and provincial sports associations is ready to speak on the record about the policies of the PSB and minister Rana Mashood. They say they cannot afford annoying the minister as he may ban them from using public stadiums. In the past, the PSB had done so despite the fact these facilities have been built with public money for the public.

The PSB also stopped annual grants to provincial associations for the last five years.

Two months ago, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif approved a Rs100 million special grant for the cash-strapped Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF). The grant has yet to reach the PHF, thanks to the PSB. The PHF could not send its senior team to Azlan Shah Cup for the first time because of no funds. The PHF is being run by PML-N leader and hockey legend Akhtar Rasool. But Akhtar is also no match to the games of funds that is under the strict control of the ruling Sharif family.

The Punjab Olympic Association (PbOA) has announced holding the Punjab Games in October this year. It also decided to organise the 6th edition of inter-school and inter-collegiate games from Nov 18 to 22.

The games may leave another trail of embracement for the government if the PSB does not hand over the PbOA its stadiums. Last year, the PbOA organised the National Games in Lahore, but the government of Punjab did not let the PbOA use any stadium, despite the fact the athletes from four provinces and various departments were in Lahore. The province of Punjab had earned a bad name as the athletes of other provinces went back without receiving a single good-will gesture from the provincial government.

A good number of golfers from New Delhi were in Lahore the last week to compete in the Pexas Scambles Golf Match-play at the Royal Palm Golf Club.

The Delhi team included Bubbles Suneja, Meeran Juneja, Maj Gen Shergill, Rajeev Puri, Madhu Misra, Jayant Juneja, Bharat Garg, Gurbir Madhan, Sudir Seth, Indu Seth, Manmohan Singh and Amit Luthra.

The host team included Ramzan Sheikh, Abbas Ali Khan, Sardar Murad, Faisal Malik, Lt Gen M Tariq, Asad IA Khan, Sharjeel Awan, Moeen Salahuddin, Hamayun Mian, Fareed Bajwa, Abid Farooq, Max Babri and Shoaeb Shams.

The women who also participated in matches were Sameea Javed Ali and Noor Zaman (Pakistan), and Bubbles Suneja, Indu Seth and Meeran (India).