Parliamentary panel irked by absence of PCB chief

A parliamentary panel on Monday, while expressing serious displeasure over the absence of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairperson Ahsan Mani, said if the chairperson did not attend the next meeting the committee would issue him a show cause notice.

The Senate Functional Committee on Problems of Less Developed Areas held here under the chairmanship of Senator Usman Khan Kakar to discuss different sports facilities in far flung and less developed areas of the country, directed the PCB chairperson to ensure presence in the next meeting.

The panel also expressed serious reservations over non-inclusion of local players in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) teams, saying the management of the PSL must ensure 51 percent representation of local players in regional teams to help find and explore new talent.

Domestic Cricket Director Haroonur Rasheed told the committee that domestic cricket was restructured and now 16 regional cricket associations would be replaced with six cricket associations.

He added that under the new structure city cricket associations had been made independent.

Rasheed said that as per the new structure Balochistan Cricket Association would be represented by 13 cities.

Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) secretary while briefing the panel said that after the passage of 18th constitutional amendment sports were now a provincial subject, and prior to the amendment, the ministry was looking into the matters but now the ministry just provided suitable atmosphere to the provincial sports bodies for the fine tuning of raw talent in any sports.

Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Fahmeeda Mirza while briefing the panel said that improving the standards of various sports was need of the hour; saying to compete on the global level, Pakistan needed to bring drastic improvements in all the departments from infrastructure to coaching.

She said that every aspect must be considered, while uplifting the sports in the less developed areas but unfortunately in the post 18th amendment-era provinces were not spending the mandatory 10 percent of the National Finance Commission (NFC) award on the uplift of the less-developed areas.

Mirza maintained that sports federations had become independent organizations, which had been occupied by "mafias" and in the post-18 amendment era those "mafias" had caused serious damage to every sport.

She said that concerned provincial departments must be made accountable and held answerable as over the past decade as to what they had done for the improvement of sports in their jurisdictions with regard to the less development areas.

Senator Usman Kakar said the panel had recommended to the provincial governments to establish sports academies in Peshawar and Quetta but as yet no progress had been made in that regard.

The IPC Minister said that as a result of "incompetence" of Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) the country's football team failed to participate in the SAAF games as well as the national games.

The committee chairperson directed the relevant officials of the Pakistan Football Association to provide full record of the past five years' of monetary funding from the FIFA.

The panel was informed by the officials of the IPC that the Football Association over the past five years even did not share the financial records with auditors, therefore financial and performance audit of the association had not yet been completed.

The officials said that now the football association was facing serious problems in getting fresh funding from the FIFA.

The committee was informed by the PCB officials that Akbar Bugti Cricket Stadium, Quetta and Arabab Niaz Cricket Stadium, Peshawar were in the process of renovation; both the stadiums would host the PSL matches.

The committee also directed the IPC ministry and other concerned quarters related to sports to strictly follow in selection of the teams, saying observing merit was the only option to compete at the global level in all the sports.