ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Inter Provincial Coordination (IPC) Monday unanimously recommended that the services of Lieutenant General Arif Hassan ®, the President of Pakistan Olympic Association (POA), be “withdrawn at the earliest because of poor performance and his controversial election.”
The committee made this recommendation in its meeting presided over by its Chairman Nawab Sher from the ruling party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
The committee took stock of Pakistan’s “hopeless” performance in the recently held Olympic Games Tokyo and directly accused the POA chief for this debacle.
“This man (Arif Hassan) has been ruling the roost at POA for years and years and the output is nil. Pakistan could not secure a single medal in the Olympics. What could be more embarrassing than that?” remarked the committee chairman.
Federal Minister for IPC Dr Fehmida Mirza completely supported the recommendation of the NA panel regarding removal of POA president.
The committee also recommended that all sports federations must be held accountable for foreign and local funding before the NA panel and IPC Ministry.
In addition, the NA panel also recommended that the chief ministers of all the four provinces provide “at least two acres of land in every village” for the promotion of sports.
Furthermore, the NA panel recommended that “talented children in sports be provided jobs and their salaries, allowances, be increased.”
IPC minister informed the committee that the last National Sports Policy was formed in 2005. Therefore, she said, a new sports policy is “very essential.” New policy will be shared with the committee once approved by the federal cabinet, she said.
Acting Secretary IPC Mohsin Mushtaq briefed the committee about the mandate of the IPC Ministry under Rules of Business 1973, and its organisational structure.
Presently, he said, all the four provincial ministers for sports are members of Inter Provincial Coordination Committee (IPCC), he said.
The committee reviewed Prevention of Offences in Sports Bill 2020 moved by Iqbal Muhammad Ali Khan from Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P).
Fehmida Mirza informed the committee that an identical bill is already in progress. The committee asked the officials of Ministry of Law and Justice to present a report on the said bill in the next meeting. Committee members; Mehboob Shah, Gul Dad Khan, Gul Zafar Khan, Haji Imtiaz Ahmed Chaudhry, Robina Jamil, Shaukat Ali Bhatti, Shaheen Naz Saifullah, Zulfiqar Bhinder, Rana Mubashir Iqbal, Zulfiqar Ali Behan, Shahida Rehmani, Nasiba Channa, Syed Faiz ul Hassan and senior officials of the ministries concerned attended the meeting.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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