PESHAWAR, Sept 3: Winner of South Asian Body-building Championship Ijaz Ahmad has demanded Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) fulfil presidential directive of awarding Rs 1 million cash award for winning gold medal in any international sports event.

“President General Pervez Musharraf had announced that any Pakistani sportsperson, winning gold medal in any discipline of sports at the international level would be awarded Rs 1 million.

But after the passage of one year, the PSB is still using delaying tactics in the fulfilment of the president’s directives,” the enraged body-builder remarked during press talks here on Saturday.

Recalling his achievements, Ijaz said that in Aug, 2004, he won South Asian body-building championship in Sri Lanka.

On his return, the officials of PSB had assured him that within two to three months he would be paid Rs 1 million, adding that in early days they were applying delaying tactics, but after passing some time the officials refused to pay him.

To a question, Ijaz claimed that according to his information, the government has already awarded cash prizes to squash and athletic medalists for reaching victory stands in international tournaments.

“However, in my case the PSB is not willing to follow the presidential directives for the reason best known to them,” Ijaz remarked.

When he was asked about the commitment the NWFP police officials had made with him in the presence of media men, Ijaz serving as constable in police department, said that though he had been promised promotion to the rank of Assistant Sub-Inspector, yet after passing so many months the police chief Riffat Pasha was reluctant to sign his promotion orders.

“I think that the police officer Malik Saad, who had made commitment of promotion had tried to catch media attention and later for certain reason avoided to match his words with action,” said Ijaz.

When he was asked about his future plans, Ijaz said he was due to participate in an international championship scheduled to be held from Sept 28-29 in Qatar.