ISLAMABAD, July 20: The Pakistan contingent, criticized for being oversized with little chance of winning medals, left Islamabad for Manchester in the wee hours of Saturday to compete in the Commonwealth Games that open Thursday.
The 75-member squad that has an unbelievably high number of 24 officials, will take part in athletics, boxing, badminton, cycling, gymnastics, hockey, judo, squash, swimming, table tennis, weightlifting, wrestling and rifle shooting.
Lt. Gen (Retd) Zulfiqar Ali Khan who heads the party however did not fly out Saturday and will be joining the team Tuesday. The list of officials makes interesting reading with the contingent having a general team manager, on top of that an assistant general team manager, a treasurer as well as an administrative officer.
Apart from these officials there are a host of others who will be “managing” their respective teams.
The Director General of Pakistan Sports Board, Brig. Saulat Abbas told Dawn that out of a total 75, as many as 63 athletes and officials were government sponsored while either the Pakistan Olympic Association or the national federations had funded the others.
He tipped boxing, hockey, shooting and wrestling as the disciplines in which Pakistan had a good chance of winning medals.
The hockey squad, currently on a tour of Spain, had left earlier and will be arriving in Manchester directly from there. Under new coach Tahir Zaman, the team is said to be the best bet for a medal.
Saulat said that the boxers S. Asghar Ali Shah, Haider Ali and Shaukat Ali all had the potential of winning medals and also pinned hopes on the marksmen Zahid Ali Khokhar, Irshad Ali and Ahmed Sultan. Wrestler Bashir Bhola Bhala is another man capable of bringing home a medal, he pointed out.
While Pakistan might win a few medals, there are some events where the country stands no chance at all and sending athletes in these disciplines has attracted criticizm from various quarters.
Participation in sports like gymnastics, judo, cycling and swimming to name a few, means nothing but just throwing away money.
The bosses might not agree but the fact is that these athletes and the officials accompanying them are being given a free ride so that the POA could strengthen their vote bank.
The following is the list of players and officials sponsored by the PSB:
Lt Gen (Retd) Zulfiqar Ali Khan (chef de mission), Air Marshal Syed Qaiser Hussain (general team manager), Dr. A .Waheed Mughal (treasurer), Muhammad Khalid Mahmood (administrative officer), Dr. Meesaq Hussain Rizvi (doctor).
ATHLETICS: Lt. Col Shujaat Ali Rana (manager), Ali Yasir Rai, Shabana Khattak
BADMINTON: S. Naqi Mohsin (manager), Wajid Ali, Asma Butt
BOXING: Javed Hanif Khan (manager), Renaldo Alvarez Ulacia (coach), S. Asghar Ali Shah, Haider Ali, Shaukat Ali.
CYCLING: Idrees Haider Khawaja (manager), Dilsher Ali Gymnastics: Painda A Mali (manager), Khalid Mahmood
HOCKEY: Col (Retd) Zafar Ali Khan (manager), Tahir Zaman (coach), Asif Bajwa (assistant coach), Waqar Saleem Mirza (doctor), Ahmed Alam, Sohail Abbas, Zeeshan Ashraf, Muhammad Usman, Muhammad Saqlain, Waseem Ahmed, Muhammad Nadeem, Muhammad Sarwar, Kashif Jawad, Kamran Ashraf, Muhammad Shabbir, Muhammad Qasim, Tariq Imran, Ghazanfar Ali, Mudassar Ali Khan, Muhammad Saleem Khalid.
JUDO: Rana M. Ajmal Khan (manager), Zeeshan Butt .
RIFLE SHOOTING: Lt. Cdr Sajjad Imam Jafri (manager), Zahid Ali Khokhar, Irshad Ali, Ahmed Sultan.
SQUASH: Mansoor Zaman, Shahid Zaman, Farrukh Zaman, Shamsul Islam
SWIMMING: Lt. Col Ahmed Nawaz Malik (manager), Abid Hussain, Kiran Khan, Sana Wahid.
TABLE TENNIS: Saeed Hassan Shah (manager), Asim Qureshi, Ghazala Roohi.
WEIGHTLIFTING: Khizer Hayat (manager cum coach), Muhammad Irfan, Hassan Aslam.
WRESTLING: Sohail Rashid (manager cum coach), Bashir Bhola Bhala, Muhammad Ali.
PLAYERS AND OFFICIALS SPONSORED BY POA/FEDERATIONS:
Abdul Khaliq Khan (assistant general team manager)
ATHLETICS: Mumtaz Ahmed, Allah Ditta, Rana Ghufran Hussain, Ehteshamul Haq, Zeenat Parveen
BADMINTON: Masood Ahmed Khan (coach)
RIFLE SHOOTING: Sh. Amin Karamat Masud, Kashif Riaz, Tariq Manzoor
SWIMMING: Mrs Veena Masud
WRESTLING: Muhammad Usman.