Daily Times

LAHORE: The management of the Pakistan Ju-Jitsu Federation (PJJF), while reviewing the performance of its national squad in the recently concluded 5th Asian Beach Games, has taken a tough decision and sacked coaches and players whose performance was not up to the mark. Pakistan won two silver and five bronze medals at the 5th Asian Beach Games in Danang, Vietnam. PJJF president Khalil Ahmad Khan said Wednesday the national federation reviewed the performance of all individuals and gave personal hearings to all players and team coaches for knowing the reasons for not achieving the desired results including gold medals.

“We wanted to start accountability in sports, which was never done before. And this decision was the first step towards accountability,” he maintained. Khalil said the national federation took note of all shortcomings and decided to stop the ongoing national training camp and sacked the team coaches. “We have decided to bring in fresh blood by talent hunting and also withdrawing our participation from the forthcoming World Championship to be held in Poland next month,” he said. The sacked coaches are Amir Mukhtar, Sabeena Saeed, Tariq Ali.

The players who have been shown the door are Ahmed Butt, Shazeb Nawaz, Rafique Ahmed, Muhammad Ammar, Abu Hurraira, Maryam Murtaza, Humaira Ashiq, Ambreen Masih, Beenish Khan, Khasaf Javed, Umer Mukhtar, Awais Ashiq Muhammad Shafique and others.

“It has also been decided that a scrutiny and evaluation committee, headed by PJJF secretary general Waqar Ilyas Khan with Mirza Farooq and Dr Khalid Saeed as members, will review the players’ performance at a national training camp to be held later. And after receiving its recommendation, the decision for participation in the Asian Championship 2016, which is also the qualifying round for the World Combat Games and World Beach Games 2017, will be taken by the management,” he added.

This is for the very first time in the history of Pakistan sports that a sports organisation has started the process of accountability and penalised officials and players for not producing the desired results. It is to be remembered that the ju-jitsu squad brought home seven medals, which is the maximum tally compared with all other teams, who took part in 5th Asian Beach Games 2016 from Pakistan including kabaddi, wrestling, handball and volleyball etc. “We are hopeful that other sports organisations will follow in the footsteps and bring positive changes in the stalled sports structure,” he stated.

It is to be noted that ju-jitsu is the only sport in Pakistan which has a long history of winning laurels for the country. Since 2006 Pakistan have retained Asian Championship title, silver medallists in the World Championship 2015, Asian Championship for Belt Wrestling 2016 (three bronze medals), World Martial Arts Mastership 2016 South Korea (two gold and one silver). In all official games under the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) and the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB), the PJJF has marvelous standing: 1st Asian Martial Arts Games 2009 (3 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze), 4th Asian Beach Games 2014 (2 gold, 3 silver), 5th Asian Beach Games 2016 (2 silver, 5 bronze). “The PJJF has also resolved that fresh blood will be brought in by talent hunting and a strong team will be prepared for the next year Asian Indoor Martial Arts Games 2017 at Ashgabat, Turkmenistan as well as Asian Games 2018 at Jakarta, Indonesia. The PJJF will not allow any joy riders in sports to waste public funds,” he concluded.