ISLAMABAD: Owing to negligence of the Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF), majority of its affiliated departments have been violating its constitution.

All affiliated units are constitutionally supposed to hold at least one national event every year, but majority of departments are avoiding organising the events.

On the other hand, PTF according to sources, instead of cancelling memberships of these affiliated units uses them to grab votes.

Sources told Dawn that Pakistan Railways, Pakistan Ordinance Factories (POF) Wah, Wapda, Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), Army and Navy are among those units which did not hold any national level event during the last five years.

During the same period, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhawa and International Club have also failed to hold any national level event.

Of the total 15 members and departments only Punjab, Sindh, Islamabad and Pakistan Air Force (PAF) have worked towards promoting the game by regularly holding events and while Wapda have failed to conduct events, they have provided jobs to dozens of tennis players.

“I agree that under the PTF constitution, all affiliated units are supposed to hold at least one national tournament a year but several units have failed to fulfil this requirement,” PTF secretary Khalid Rehmani told Dawn.

However, Rehmani said things have changed now. “I can’t say anything about what happened in the past but I assure you that things are now going in the right direction,” he said.

The other day, a special council meeting of PTF held at the Syed Dilawar Abbas PTF Tennis Complex with its president Salim Saifullah Khan in the chair where it was decided to increase the annual affiliation fee for the departments by Rs15,000.

“The annual affiliation fee for the departments was raised from Rs5,000 to Rs20,000. The Provincial Associations, PSTA, International Club, and Islamabad Tennis Association, will continue to pay Rs5,000 annual fee as per the previous practice,” said a PTF spokesman.

Salim, meanwhile, briefed the house about the PTF activities since he took over as president four months ago.

He said that eight teams were sent abroad to take part in various international meets and the teams were selected purely on merit while training camps were held for the same prior to their departure.

Pakistan will also take part in many forthcoming international events in this calendar year including the Davis Cup tie at Jakarta, Samoa Common Wealth You­th Games, and coaching camps at Asian Tennis Federation’s centre in Bangkok.

The meeting also approved amendments in the constitution to conform it to the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) Sports Policy.

Salim added that Pakistan will hold three Asian Tennis Federation 14 and Under Super Series Tournaments in the months of September and October while four mini Tennis Courts will be built at Dilawar Abbas PTF Complex.

He advised the Provincial Tennis Asso­c­i­ations to take similar steps to promote the game at grassroots level. The House also created a Women’s Wing which is man­d­atory as per IOC laws while Gilgit-Bal­t­stan was given associate membership.

Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2015

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