Daily Times

Need to promote traditional
sports and games

Sir: It is a known fact that much more has been done to promote cricket and other such games and sports but nothing has been done to promote traditional and cultural sports and games in our, particularly in Sindh and Balochistan provinces. Sindh boasts several traditional and indigenous sports from different regions. Kodi kodi and malh (forms of Sindh wrestling) are ancient and traditional games and sports. These games convey the values of solidarity, diversity, inclusiveness and cultural awareness but the provincial sports department has utterly neglected them and now the players of the said sports feel invisible.

However, the federal and provincial governments must work to preserve, promote and develop traditional games and sports, and to ensure that they form an integral part of national and development strategies. The Sindh government should set up malkhra stadiums at the divisional level for the youth of the province and appoint seasoned malh and kodi kodi pahlwans as coaches on handsome packages. The players/sportsmen of traditional games and sports should also be given jobs like those in cricket and hockey in different federal and provincial organisations, especially varsities. Pakistan’s baitul mal should come forward to arrange medical treatment of ailing pahlwans (wrestlers) in Sindh and other provinces. In this regard, it is proposed that malh and kodi kodi” competitions of players belonging to traditional games and sports hailing from all four provinces, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan should also be arranged during the scheduled annual Lok Virsa cultural fair in Islamabad in the month of April.

The time has come to promote ancient traditional sports and games in a peace-starved and intolerant Pakistani society.

HASHIM ABRO

Islamabad