ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary committee has called for uplifting the game of hockey in the country, saying that despite being the national game it wasn’t getting due attention of the policy makers. The National Assembly Standing Committee on Inter Provincial Coordination met here at Parliament House with MNA Abdul Qahar Khan Wadan in the chair to discuss the decline in the standard of hockey. Committee member Sardar Mohammad Shafqat Hayat Khan said there was a pressing need to conduct talent hunts at district level. “Like cricket, they should scour for talent at the district level,” he said. The committee hailed the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) for hosting the World XI and termed the development as positive sign for the game. PHF secretary general Shahbaz Ahmed Senior acknowledged before the committee that hockey had been vanished from educational institutions. “There is a need for setting up a hockey centre in Islamabad,” he said. The committee recommended that the sports federations should be made independent and their funds should be enhanced and the PHF should aim at getting private sponsors. Earlier IPC Minister Riaz Hussain Pirzada briefed the committee about the steps taken by the IPC Ministry for flourishing the sports activities in the country. He also agreed with the committee that incentives should be awarded to the hockey players. The committee also discussed the appointment procedure for new director general of Pakistan Sports Board (PSB), as incumbent Dr. Akhtar Nawaz Ganjera is going to retire next month. The IPC Minister said that in the current lot of officers of PSB, no one was eligible to be appointed as new DG. The committee also formed a sub-committee under MNA Sardar Mohammad Shafqat, which would give recommendations for criteria of appointing new DG. The committee also recommended that the government should initiate steps from promotion of sports in educational institutions as committee members said that private schools should not be awarded NOC without fulfilling the requirement of a reasonable play ground and sports facilities to the students. Published in Daily Times, February 1st 2018.