LAHORE: The 88th Executive Committee meeting of Pakistan Sports Board has decided to review the national sports policy-2005 which has had a damaging affect on the country’s sports culture, triggering a war between the national sports federations and the Pakistan Sports Board over restricting the term period of the federations’ office-bearers to two terms of four years each.

According to a press release issued here on Monday by the federal sports ministry, the 88th Executive Committee meeting of the Paksitan Sports Board was held on 8th June at Islamabad. Dr Fehmida Mirza, Federal Minister for IPC presided over the meeting.

“The Executive Committee has decided to constitute a Committee to review the existing National Sports Policy 2005 in line with the 18th Constitutional amendments. The Committee will be headed by Muhammad Ali Shahzada, Secretary, Ministry of IPC, while other members include representative of HEC, President, Pakistan Tennis Federation, legal adviser PSB and a veteran sportsperson.

The committee will submit its first draft to the Federal Minister for IPC within one month which will be forwarded to all stakeholders for their input. The Committee also decided to submit a summary to the Prime Minister for cash awards to the medal winners of other prominent international events,” concluded the press release.

It may be mentioned here that the national sports policy was formed on unilateral basis as the then government had failed to hold a fair dialogue between the stakeholders.

After finalising the policy without consulting anyone, the government tried to impose the policy on the national sports federations which caused huge uproar.

Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2020