The recent denials by the international sports organisations to govt-backed sports authorities for the participation of Pakistani athletes in the mega events like the Commonwealth Games should serve as an eye-opener to the rival groups of the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) whose ugly tug-of-war has damaged the country’s image besides demoralising the athletes and sports buff.
The organisers of the Islamic Solidarity Games — which are being held in Palembang, Indonesia from Sept 22 to Oct 1 — first refused entry to Pakistan when they turned down a participation request sent by the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) on behalf of the Foreign Office and the government-backed Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) led by Akram Sahi.
However, according to reports, the Games organisers have issued the accreditation cards to the Arif Hasan-led POA since his body is the only organisation recognised by the IOC.
That was followed by the snub from the organisers of the 2014 Commonwealth Games who disallowed participation to Pakistan hockey team despite the efforts of the troika (the PSB, Foreign Office and Akram Sahi’s POA).
The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF), despite knowing well that the government could not get an entry for its national team for the CW Games without going through the Arif Hasan-led POA group.
That means that the Pakistan hockey team will neither be featuring in the next year’s World Cup (because of its failure to qualify for it in Ipoh, Malaysia) nor the Commonwealth Games.
Ultimately, it is a national loss and has caused a lot of embarrassment to all concerned. But is anyone willing to accept the responsibility for the fiasco?
There are also reports that the Arif Hasan group is now planning to quietly send the athletes to Indonesia for it fears that the government may deny exit to the players at the airports to show its ‘strength’. The Inter-provincial minister has already stated that no athlete from Pakistan could depart for any country without having the NOC from the government.
The role of the Inter-provincial ministry and the PSB in the entire episode has sadly been quite negative. Instead of playing the traditional role of facilitator for the athletes for their participation in the mega events, these organisations have resorted to actions which are now threatening to destroy sports in Pakistan.
The Inter-provincial minister, from day one, has been supporting the Akram Sahi group, not realising that the IOC will never support it.
One feels that more investment on sports activities with better planning through right channels is the need of the time but it seems there is no think-tank working in the country to promote sports.
The real stakeholders in sports are the national sports federations and the POA which, by virtue of their affiliation with the international sports federations, could play a big part in holding international events in Pakistan and divert the youth towards healthy activities.
But that is not the case today as the previous and current governments have not taken any measures to resolve the POA dispute or promote the sports activities.
Some more bad news is also in store as the IOC Executive Board in its meeting held at Buenos Aires, recently, has also given a signal to ban Pakistan’s Olympic membership.
In what is seen as the final attempt to avoid this harsh decision, the IOC has invited Pakistan’s inter-provincial minister to its headquarters in Lausanne in the first week of October to inform him about the serious consequences an Olympic ban can cause for Pakistan.
The PSB officials and the inter-provincial ministry — who want to control all the national sports federations — have led to inclusion of unfair laws and clauses in the PSB’s constitution according to which it has the powers to suspend any sports federation besides repealing its constitution and even impose an ad hoc. The IOC has expressed serious concerns over such rules of the PSB.
Interestingly, out of some 36 national sports federations working in the country, hardly six are violating the two-term clause of national sports policy.
But instead of taking action against those six sports federations, the PSB is busy playing politics which has seen almost all the leading sports in Pakistan hitting rock bottom which is extremely unfortunate.
at http://www.dawn.com
