LAHORE: A good number of speakers including former hockey Olympians on Thursday rued Pakis­tan’s non-representation at the Rio Games 2016 and, in a bid to resurrect the sports in the country, have deci­ded to collaborate with the Pakis­tan Olympic Association (POA).

In a function hosted by POA to celebrate the Olympic Day here on Thursday, association’s president retired Lt Gen Arif Hasan welcomed the re-entry of the PHF in the fold and said it was a welcome sign for sports in Pakistan.

Arif said the country needs a strong base for the sports which could only be built with a clear and strong vision of the government which has the resources to reach even at the tehsil and village levels.

Resurrection of sports

He said France and England had old rivalry in all fields and the former finally discovered that reason behind the latter’s domination was its strong base for sports at the school level. He added that many developed countries had been putting special emphasis on the importance of economy and sports but, unfortunately, sports in Pakistan have been totally neglected.

Seniormost hockey Olympian Manzoor-ul-Hassan Sr said it was unfortunate that for the last many years due to security fears, Pakistan could not host sports events of international level and that was one of the reasons behind its decline in sports. “Now it is time that all of us should ignore the past and move forward with a clear vision to bring back all the glories,” said Manzoor Sr.

He lamented that the fight between two groups of the POA proved fatal for sports. “But now the POA president Arif should not waste this opportunity which he has earned after winning the elections once again this year.”

Pakistan Hockey Federation secretary Shahbaz Senior, Olympians Khawaja Junaid, Tahir Zaman, Salim Nazim, Mohammad Usman, Navied Alam, former PHF secretary retired Brig Mussaratullah Khan, Pakistan Federation Baseball chairman Shaukat Javed and Punjab Olympic Association secretary Khawaja Idrees all spoke on the occasion.

Shahbaz said that Olympic Games bear a lot of meaning for every athlete as he or she could not be considered as a complete player without competing at the Olympics.

“I really feel for those current players who would miss the Rio Olympics 2016 and they are in such an age that they might not be able to get selected for the next edition of the Olympics,” observed Shahbaz.

Tahir said every year the POA should organise a day of sports, in which set targets by all the federations must be reviewed.

POA secretary Khalid Mahmood also welcomed the arrival of the PHF in the function. He said no doubt hockey was still the national game of the country and the POA wants to see this game to again qualify for the Olympics. He praised the fact that big players of the past like Manzoor Senior, Tahir Zaman and Shahbaz Senior were also attending the function and termed it as a big achievement for POA function.

Pakistan Federation Baseball chairman Shaukat Javed lamented that the tussle among different groups of POA in the past had severely dented the promotion of sports and Pakistan could not qualify for any sports at the Rio Games.

He said at least Pakistan had been prided itself for its participation in the Olympics through hockey but even that has not happened.

He welcomed the return of the PHF into the POA fold but regretted that no official of Akram Sahi’s Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) was attending the function.

The officials of karate, weightlifting, rifle shooting, handball, wrestling, wushu, volleyball, gymnastics, baseball, cycling and of many other federations were also present on the occasion.

Meanwhile, POA secretary Khalid said that after the holy of month of Ramazan, the POA would advise all the sports federations to stage some events to celebrate the Olympics Day.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2016