ISLAMABAD: Ahead of her meeting with the Prime Minister, the federal minister for Inter Provincial Coordination (IPC) Dr. Fahmida Mirza held a meeting with Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) and with officers of Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) on Monday and said that her ministry will take every possible step to bring improvement in sports in the country.

The ministry of IPC is supervising sports sector of the country. The IPC minister held a meeting with POA and sports board officials regarding the poor performance of the national contingent in the recent Asian Games. The minister was briefed that medals were expe­cted from the hockey team but the green-shirts could not live up to the expectations. POA President Lt. Gen. (R) Syed Arif Hasan also attended the meeting.

The IPC minister will give a briefing on this to Prime Min­ister Imran Khan on Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters, Fahmida said that without the support of private sector, sports could not be promoted. She urged the private sector to come forward and play their role in uplifting sports. She said that there is need to work from the grassroot level to uplift sports.

She further said that the national sports policy will be framed in consultation with all stake holders very soon.

Speaking on the occasion, POA President Gen Arif said that meeting remained very positive and fruitful as the minister called up all the stakeholders and took their views for uplifting sports. He said that long term plan should be evolved to hunt talent.

Published in Dawn, September 11th, 2018