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ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary committee on Thursday endorsed Pakistan Cricket Board request for launching its own TV channel and radio stations to promote the game in the country.
The Senate Standing Committee on Inter-provincial Coordination (IPC), which met here at Parliament House with Senator Mushahidullah Khan in the chair, recommended the PCB should have its own TV channel and radio station.
Najam Sethi, chief of PCB executive committee, expressed during the Senate body meeting that the Board wanted to launch its own TV and radio stations for promoting cricket.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Sethi told the committee, had already given go-ahead to the PCB for launching its TV channel. In response to this, the Senate committee recommended the PCB should have its own TV and radio.
Here it is relevant to mention that the PCB for the last ten years or so has been making efforts to start the TV, radio channel project. During the era of Gen Pervez Musharraf, the PCB in this regard had been given green signal, but it somehow failed to execute the project.
Meanwhile, Shahbaz Ahmed Senior, secretary of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) who was also present at the Senate body meeting, told the committee that the federation wanted to hold the inaugural Pakistan Hockey League (PHL) from Nov 1 this year in Lahore.
Interestingly, Shahbaz during the meeting also put his demand before the Senate committee for having a sports channel aimed at promoting hockey.
To this, Mushahidullah and Minister for IPC Riaz Hussain Prizada said the PHF would be given its due share in the TV channel to be launched by the PCB.
“We will ask the PCB to sign an MoU with the PHF in this regard,” the minister told Shahbaz.
Earlier, Sethi told the committee that the final of the next Pakistan Super League T20 tournament would be staged in Lahore, hoping the step would pave the way for reviving international cricket in the country.
Meanwhile, Shahbaz while disclosing PHF’s plan on inaugural PHL, briefed the committee about the steps being taken by the federation for lifting the declining standard of the game.
Several international players from Australia and European countries have shown their interest to feature in the PHL.
“This league will give a significant boost to our hockey,” Shahbaz said, adding that the federation was in contact with the Punjab government for getting final permission to launch PHL.
Published in Dawn, August 5th, 2016
