KARACHI: Senior member of National Assembly Standing Committee for Sports Iqbal Mohammad Ali Khan has lashed out at the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Committee over the formation of new Pakistan Sports Board Governing Board. He said that the members of Sports Board Executive Committee have been selected on arbitrary basis and termed the nomination of members of PSB Governing Board Executive Committee as unconstitutional. “By amending the constitution, favored persons are being awarded,” he said. “The sports governing body is conspiring to promote dictatorship instead of democracy.”

He said that it was surprising that unrelated people were being given priority in the sports governing body instead of the representatives of sports organisations. He added that reducing the representation of other sports, including the national sport of hockey through a constitutional amendment falls under the category of injustice. Iqbal slammed the notification of constitutional amendment by the Federal Ministry of Sports for Inter-Provincial Coordination, saying that the notification of amendment to the constitution does not meet the democratic requirements.He said that the executive committee constitution was openly violated in the representation of sports federations, adding that hasty decisions would make the performance of the board set up for the development and welfare of sports a mere hoax.

He pointed out that the lack of interest of the Federal Minister in Inter-Provincial Coordination has severely affected the structure of sports. “Due to that, sports development projects and sports structures have been brought to the brink of collapse,” he added. “Due to the lack of interest of the federal minister, no permanent executive engineer has been appointed for a long time. For some time now, the ministry has been working with a Grade 17 and 18 officer. And due to the failed policy of these officers, the entire sports infrastructure has been destroyed.”

He said it is surprising that certain amendments have been quietly made in the PSB constitution without getting its approval which is unjustified. He expressed his dismay at ignoring of hockey in the committee which had brought so many laurels to the country including three Olympics and four World Cups in the 73 years history of the country. For nominating hand picked people in the PSB executive committee and ignoring national game hockey. Iqbal lamented that PSB is functioning without a full time Director General for quite a long time which is alarming.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2020