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LAHORE Considering sending athletes abroad a crucial part of giving boost to national sports, President of the Pakistan Olympic Association Gen (ret) Arif Hasan on Thursday conceded that excluding hockey he had no medal hope in any other discipline at the 2012 London extravaganza.
Gen (ret) Arif was addressing the 'Meet the Press' programme organised by the Sports Journalists Association of Lahore (SJAL) here.
To a question as to why the POA and the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) had been giving priority to send teams and officials abroad to oblige joy-riders, the POA president reckoned sending teams abroad was an essential step.
He said it was right of the country's best athletes to get exposure at the international level.
However, there was no appropriate response from the president when he was reminded that except for hockey Pakistani athletes in different disciplines had been hitting rock bottom again and again, causing embarrassment for the country. He admitted that apart from hockey he had no medal hope in other games at the 2012 Olympics.
He also termed lack of funds, modern equipment and facilities for scientific coaching are the root causes of decline of sports in Pakistan.
The POA president noted that the world had made swift progress by using latest equipment and employing modern coaching techniques, adding in Pakistan the case was different.
Gen (ret) Arif said Pakistan could import modern sports gear from neighbouring countries especially Iran but urged the government should also waive the customs duty in this regard.
Gen (ret) insisted the POA had no strained relations with the Punjab Olympic Association, adding there were some issues with the Punjab chapter over the affiliation of some provincial sports bodies, which were being resolved.
To a query that some federations had introduced a new system of sending athletes abroad on self-finance basis and there were reports the Pakistan Swimming Federation had charged a swimmer Rs400,000 who wanted to appear in the world championship in Italy, the president said he would take notice of it.
The POA boss said as the Pakistan Sports Board had decided not to sponsor the Pakistan contingent for the next Indoor Games, the POA had no other resource to send it.
Emphasising there was no row between the POA and the PSB, he said he always believed the PSB was the country's supreme sports institution.
Gen (ret) Arif said the Pakistan Sports Trust (PST), which is running under his command, was facing problems due to certain reasons and it had only Rs20 to 25 million in accounts, adding that the PST had been giving financial support to all the federations previously.
