KARACHI, Sept 6: Chairman of Karachi Intermediate Board (KIB) Iftikhar Hussain Zaidi said that drastic steps were taken to uplift the standard of sports in colleges.

He said this while presiding over the Sports Organising Committee of KIB here Friday to popularise sports amongst the college students to improve overall standard of sports and arrest its decline.

The committee also decided to imposed financial penalties on those colleges which failed to turn up for their matches and concede walkovers.

The Sports Committee responding to instructions from Governor Sindh decided to complete the renovation work of pitches and outfield of Bukhtiari Youth Centre Ground and appointed the BYC Ground Development committee consisting of Prof Iftikhar Zaidi (Chairman ) and included KCCA Secretary Sirajul Islam Bukhari, former Test cricketer Iqbal Qasim, Mushtaq Ahmed (DDO), Ehsan Qureshi and Engr.Israr Zaidi (KWSB) as members.

Committee also chalked out the programme for inter collegiate sporting extravaganza which is as under:

Boys: swimming (Sept 22-23), football (Sept 20) table tennis (Oct 2) volleyball (Oct 4) bodybuilding (Oct 8), cricket (Oct 9), squash (Oct 15), hockey (Dec 4), gymnastics (Dec 13), badminton (Dec 15), cross country (Jan 4,2004), basketball (Jan 6,2004), athletics (Jan 2004).

Girls: netball (Sept 25), swimming (Oct 2), basketball (Oct 4), table tennis (Oct 14) hockey (Dec 11), tennis (Dec 18), volleyball (Jan 4,2004), badminton (Jan 17,2004) throwball (Jan 26, 2004), athletics Jan 2004.

The Sports Committee approved the budget estimates and tames of various tournament committees for holding these Inter- collegiate events.

The committee also decided to penalise monetarily those colleges who fail to turn up and concede walkovers in their matches.

The Sports Committee appointed a monitoring committee consisting of Prof Iftikhar Zaidi (Chairman), M/s Anis Zaidi, Sirajul Islam Bukhari, Karim Mughal, Ehsan Qureshi and Mrs, Birjis Sultana Siddiqui to keep a vigil eye on the performances of the students in the Inter collegiate contests this year.—APP