ISLAMABAD, May 5: The executive committee of the Pakistan Sports Board that met on Monday decided to freeze the annual grants of as many as 15 national federations for not abiding by the new sports policy.
But the decision was firmly opposed by the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) whose representative Khaliq Khan said that this move was no solution. “You cannot give directions as per the International Olympic Committee (IOC) charter.”
Sports Minister Raees Munir Ahmed who announced the decision said it was a first step towards ensuring that the policy was implemented in letter and spirit. “Some federations have been ignoring the policy despite getting government grants and other support for reasons best known to them.”
“However the federations that assure us that they would implement the policy their grants would be restored,” the minister pointed out.
The federations to be affected by the decision include basketball, cycling, judo, kabaddi, rowing, handball, table tennis, swimming, weightlifting, volleyball, wrestling, football, shootingball, karate and billiards and snooker.
The list also included the gymnastics federation but was omitted after the PSB received a letter from them stating their willingness to obey.
The federations get annual grants ranging from Rs 25,000 to Rs 0.35 million (three and a half lakh) while doing little to raise money on their own through sponsorship.
The federations and the POA are opposed basically to the clause of the sports policy that bars office-bearers of the federations from holding office for more than two terms of four years each.
Although the POA has moved court on this matter, the minister said that since no stay had been granted to them the executive committee took the decision of banning the federations for non- compliance.
POA’s associate secretary, Khaliq Khan who also attended Monday’s meeting told Dawn that the IOC charter prohibits government intervention in matters of National Olympic Committees.
He said that a letter from the IOC in this regard was circulated in the meeting clearly stating this point. “You have to have continuity because the office-bearers of federations have to establish international contacts and take public relationing steps which require time.”
He termed the sports policy a “half-baked effort” and suggested that grants to the federations should be performance- oriented. “Like we have the boxing federation that has done so well in recent years, so they definitely deserve more.”
But the country’s boxing managers are still waiting for a grant of Rs 10 million announced by President Gen Pervez Musharraf in November. However, the minister made it clear that the federation would get what had been promised. “The money will be handed to them because they have really done well.”
The meeting disposed off a heavy agenda but Saulat and the minister did not seem too interested in talking about the items that included such important matters as budget estimates of the PSB for 2002-2003 and approving of the reports on Pakistan’s performance in the Commonwealth Games and the Asiad.