LAHORE: The Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) has spelt out a comprehensive plan which envisaged holding of a sports seminar and country’s participation in the various international events abroad during the year. “The activities begin with the organisation of a big sports seminar in Lahore on January 29 which is aimed at drawing a collective strategy to uplift sports in the country,” (POA) president Lt Gen (r) Syed Arif Hassan said Sunday. Identifying salient features of the seminar which is part of a series aimed at reaching consensus and to give constructive suggestions to the government, Arif said it would cover a wide-ranging subjects including sports development, devolution of sports, sports industry and sponsorship, incentive to the sports industries tax issues, sports in the universities, role of departments and services, women in sports and doping policies. It is pertinent to mention that the first such seminar was also held at Lahore in September 2016. He added that people from all walks of life were expected to take part in the proposed seminar which would be inaugurated by the Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC), Mian Riaz Hussain Pirzada. Syed Arif said the POA’s general council meeting will be held at Lahore the following day of seminar January 30 to discuss country’s participation in various events abroad besides other items of the agenda. He emphasised that following the devolution, sports had now become a provincial subject. According to him, Pakistan was likely to compete in the 8th Asian Winter Games at Sapporo, Japan from Feb 19 to 26, 4th Islamic Solidarity Games at Baku, Azerbaijan from May 12 to 22, 6th Commonwealth Youth Games at Nassau, Bahamas from July 19 to 23 and 5th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games at Ashgabat, Turkmenistan from September 17 to 27. Elaborating further, he said a 16-member ski contingent would compete at the Winter Games while 129 men, 44 women and 42 officials were expected to fly to Baku for the Islamic Games. The disciplines in which Pakistan will feature in the Islamic Games are athletics, basketball, boxing, handball, karate, shooting, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling, wushu and zurkhaneh (on self sponsored basis). He said that an 11-member contingent would take part at the Commonwealth Youth Games. Olympic Academy: Outlining salient features of establishing an Olympic Academy at Lahore’s Olympic House, he said it would be commissioned on February 28 and among other things, had a capacity of 30 to 40 people, facilities of library and a computer in the first stage. “This is being done on the guidelines of the IOC,” he remarked. The POA chief said he planned to take the Higher Education Commission (HEC) chairman on board. “I will meet him and get his nod for the uplift of sports in educational institutions,” Syed Arif added. He stressed upon the need for promoting sports at the grassroots level: district, division and provincial levels under the umbrella of respective national sports federations. “When the POA raised the issue with the government to exempt or lessen the tax on import of sports equipments they did it but for the elite sports like golf and skiing,” he said while responding to a question pertaining to poor floor mats and other sports gear. Answering yet another question pertaining to Pakistan cycling and judo federations and the Sindh Squash Association, he said: “The POA has an arbitration system which goes by the book and in case of dispute, it is mandatory for warring factions to abide by its decision. In case one faction is not satisfied with the POA’s arbitrary committee’s decision, it has the right to appeal to Geneva-based international Arbitrary Commission,” he added. The POA president recalled that in an accord with the IOC, it was decided that all parallel federations would withdraw their courts cases but unfortunately, only one was withdrawn in Islamabad which reflected malafide intentions. He made it clear that in the tussle he didn’t want a promising athlete who has the potential to win a medal abroad to suffer. “I assure you that no injustice will be done to any medal prospect athlete,” he concluded.