Gold medallists Sher Abbas, Irshad Hussain, and Ali Mujtaba — who hail from the tribal district of Parachinar — said on Wednesday that despite winning over a 100 medals in international and domestic competitions, they remain without government patronage and have to train in severely underfunded facilities.

They said that they bear all the costs related to their training and competitions, and while they are able to afford the expenses of domestic competitions, paying for international competitions is very difficult.

“Visa and ticket money is beyond our reach, so we request the government to provide these to us”, they stated.

Martial artists from Parachinar have been selected for the Asian Championship in Iran on March 2, however due to a lack of financial resources, their participation in the competition has been put under doubt.