KARACHI: In the backdrop of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s directive to government organisations to stop patronising sports, a large number of sportspersons are facing miserable a situation, either they have been sacked or their salaries have been stopped during the last few months.

The Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) has disbanded teams and showed the door to athletes while the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) has not renewed its players’ contracts which expired some four months ago, Dawn has learnt.

“My colleagues and I received termination notice on Jan 1, saying our services are no longer required,” Olym­pian Mohammad Javed, who served SSGC for 15 years, told Dawn from his hometown in Gujranwala on Thursday.

Expressing severe anger, the former Pakistan right-half who is father of four, said he would set all his medals and certificates on fire because they now had no worth.

The 40-year old, who donned national colour at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, expressed his dismay over the PM’s order that had rendered hundreds of athletes jobless across the country.

“The SSGC has fired over 20 players of hockey, football and cycling in the middle of their career and the department now ceases to exist,” he lamented.

“The sportsmen who are awaiting renewal of their contracts in NBP belong to hockey, football, badminton and snooker,” a source told Dawn.

Another source said players, whose contracts had expired, were at risk of losing their jobs adding that some contractual cricketers were fired earlier.

The bank’s sports division was closed down a few years ago and its sports complex located at Clifton now comes under the wing of Strategic Marketing Division (SMD).

Here it is pertinent to mention that sports departments of government and financial institutions have yielded fruitful results for decades besides providing employment to a large number of deserving sportspersons.

As many as 10 players belonging to PIA were part of Pakistan hockey team that won country’s third Olympic gold medal at Los Angeles in 1984 – 38 years ago.

Pakistan sports is at the crossroads, and currently there seems no light at the end of tunnel.

Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2022