PESHAWAR, Oct 8: The NWFP Government is yet to appoint female coaches for women player despite the passage of more  than  four months, officials told Dawn on Wednesday.

“The NWFP cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani on May 16, had placed a complete ban on male instructors for female players of the province and had decided to  establish a separate directorate of sports for women”, said an  official  of the culture and sports department.

Despite the passage a period of well over four months, the government is yet to appoint female coaches.

The officials said that they were working on a plan to utilise the services of dierctoress of physical education (DPEs)  for training of women players. All of the girls college and  schools in the province have had the services of DPEs, who are  qualified and well as trained, said the officials.

The  government, the officials said had also said  that  women players  would visit other cities in connection with  tournaments in  the supervision of female officials instead of male, but  the sports  department does not have female staffers to be sent  with the female players touring other cities.

He  said  that  the NWFP has immense  talent,  but  given  the Pakhtun-dominated society the people are reluctant to allow their females for sports activities. The announcement by the  Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA)’s government to ban the male instructors  for women  players,  was  aimed at encouraging  of  women  sports  by appointing female instructors for them, said the officials.

Presently,   the  women  in  NWFP  take  part  in   athletics, volleyball,  badminton, table tennis, hockey, netball and  squash for  which they were being trained by male instructors.  But  the officials  argue that they had some senior female  players,  like Nigar  and Shabana Khattak, who had represented Pakistan  at  the international  events  and had the capacity to train  the  junior players and improve their skills.

Such  players,  the officials said can be  hired  on  contract basis.  However, he informed that the directorate of  sports  has already had one female assistant directoress, but she needed more staff to make a separate directorate for women functional.

Once  the arrangements for the establishment of  the  proposed women directorate are made, then appointment of female staff  and instructors would also be decided.

“But,  at the moment there is no progress in this r egard,  the government   has  agreed  in  principles  to  set  women   sports directorate,  but the government, it seemed was preoccupied  with too many things and this issue is yet to accorded priority”, said the officials.

According to them, establishment of a  fulfleged  directorate would  need a big chunk of amount, which they said would also  be difficult for the cash-strapped province.

Meanwhile,  some  girl  players said that  they  do  not  need coaches  at all, because they had got immense training  at  their schools and colleges.

“I have visited Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Azad Kashmir to partake in tournaments there. My parents accompanied me”, said young Nargis Bibi. She said she would welcome the appointment  of female  staffers at the directorate of sports so that they  could visit other parts of the country in their supervision.

Another  table tennis player, said she had learnt the game  in her  school where a system was already in place and the  students were  trained  by female DPEs. She said she took part  in  school level  competitions  which  happened to  be  all  women  affairs, because there was no male.

She  said  that a proper system at school  and  college  level existed which needed to be pushed. The female DPEs, she said also knew rules and regulations of all sorts of sports and could guide the players within the premises of schools and colleges.