Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) has decided to hold the Quaid-e-Azam Inter Provincial Games in April and requested the government to release fund for it. The PSB’s technical committee, headed by deputy director general (technical) Shahid Islam, has proposed that competitions should be held in 18 disciplines from April 18 to 23 in a befitting manner. The disciples are athletics, badminton, football, hockey, judo, karate, netball, squash, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis and volleyball (for both men and women), while five events will be organised exclusively for men that include baseball, boxing, swimming, weightlifting and wrestling. One event softball is exclusively meant for women. Last year, competitions were held in 13 disciplines.

A statement issued by the PSB said that teams from the four provinces, AJK, Gilgit-Baltistan, FATA and Islamabad will participate in the mega event. It is relevant to note here that the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) considers these games a useless exercise. These games are not national games rather games among the sports boards of the country. Instead of calling them Inter Provincial Games, one should call them inter sports board games,” said POA president Lt Genera (r) Syed Arif Hassan while talking to media persons during his recent visit to the federal capital.

An official of the PSB said that the board did not have enough money to hold the event as the government had not released the promised budget. “If funds are not released, we will have no option but to abandon this project,” he said. The official added that the government was supposed to release 169 million rupees as per PC-I of the project. He claimed that sport federations were more keen to participate in the edition as its first edition experienced mega success last year. “We held games in 13 disciplines last year but this year due to demands of federations, we will organise the event in 18 disciplines,” he concluded.