Last week, six girl athletes levelled allegations against the sports department of the University of Punjab that they were forced to use a banned substance that reacted on their bodies.

The athletes even sent a complaint to Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. Before the chief minister took action, news of a complaint sent to him broke in the media. But it all died down as most of the athletes made a U-turn the very next day.

However, main complainant Bushra remained firm. She told Dawn the PU administration had forced her fellows to backtrack on their claims through different tactics, including pressing their families, and left her alone.

Six girls had initially addressed a joint press conference at the Lahore Press Club and made the claims. After a few hours, PU Women Sports Director Shamsa Hashmi held a counter press conference to deny the allegations. But the next day, two of the girls took a U-turn, while three others were declared outsiders, leaving Bushra alone to face the strong university administration.

Shamsa also announced a five-member committee had been formed to probe the entire event in detail. But Bushra said she did not trust any committee as it would be under Shamsa’s influence.

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) should come up with a concrete policy for sports departments of its affiliated universities. Since there is a mushroom growth of private universities taking interest in sports, a strong policy to run the affairs smoothly is the need of the hour. A policy should be devised under which players should be registered with their respective universities at least six months before the start of any competition.

Furthermore, no player should be allowed to represent their university in more than one game. In fact, the main problem in women’s sports begins when one girl represents many institutions in different disciplines. The HEC must take positive steps otherwise rivalries among universities will continue to spark similar scandals.

The PU being a massive university has been losing to smaller universities such as the Central University and University of Lahore, which are showing rapid improvement despite fewer facilities.

Though the PU has been winning the women’s trophy for many years, but in the men’s category, surprisingly, the abovementioned universities are ahead of it. Almost 150 colleges of Punjab are affiliated with the PU. But it is not holding open trials to select strong teams. The PU should also include prominent international players in its selection committees to conduct open trials and pick the best teams for inter-varsity competitions.

Tonight, the world’s second biggest sporting event, the Fifa World Cup, concludes in Brazil with the final match between Argentina and Germany. Just like millions watching the World Cup live on their television screens throughout the world, Lahorites were equally enthusiastic about the event and would stay up till late to watch the matches.

But sadly, the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF), with its headquarters in Lahore, did not hold a single event regarding the World Cup despite being a member of Fifa.

The PFF did not make any plans to grab this opportunity to entertain the so many youths interested in football. Neither the federation nor the government is making any efforts to promote the game here.

While India is sending a big contingent of 224 athletes to compete in 14 different disciplines of the Commonwealth Games to be held in Glasgow from July 23 to Aug 3, the fate of Pakistan’s contingent still hangs in the balance due to a case pending in the Lahore High Court (LHC).

The Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) has finalised a contingent of 82 members for the Games. The Arif Hasan group had the support of the federal government and everything was going smooth until Hasan’s rival group headed by Akram Sahi sought a stay order against the government’s support to the contingent.

Resultantly, the government cannot spend anything on the chosen athletes. Time is running out and uncertainty continues to prevail regarding participation of the Pakistan contingent. The players who have been training for months are also confused over the situation.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2014