The Senate Standing Committee on Sports met at the Parliament House here on Wednesday under the Chairmanship of Senator Zafar Iqbal Chaudhry, has recommended that PTV should launch a sports channel, exclusively devoted to the promotion of the sports.
The Committee in its meeting held threadbare discussions on the report of the Sub-Committee of the Senate Standing Committee on Sports to improve the standard of sports. The Committee approved the following recommendations unanimously and expressed the hope that these recommendations would help a lot to bring improvement the sports in the country, including:
i) Sports policy should be re-written after getting feed-back from the principle state holders including provincial governments, Pakistan Olympic Association and Sports Federations should be reviewed after every four years and necessary changes should be made in it after taking stakeholders into confidence.
ii) Pakistan should concentrate on those games in which it has potential.
iii) Annual grants/ budget of federations should be enhanced and the Ministry should ensure their properly utilisation. It should be mandatory for the provinces to allocate 2 per cent of their budget for promotion of games.
iv) Federations should generate their own funds by getting sponsorship. Most of the heads of the federations can play their role in this regard as in most cases federation heads are influential individuals.
v) Involve those in the affairs of sports bodies, who have know how about sports and discourage services of international players to improve the standard of the games. However, services should only be acquired if coaches are not available.
vi) Youngsters should be gunned at an early age.
vii) Provision of funds for promotion of sports should not be sole criteria. Other aspects in this regard should also be taken into consideration.
viii) The grants of sports federations should be released in one go rather than instalments and their utilisation should be monitored by the Ministry.
ix) The Government interference in day to day affairs of the spoils institutions federations would result in complications, therefore, the Government at all level should avoid this practice.
x) Talent hunt program should be launched by all federations and half yearly reports be submitted to the Ministry.
xi) Job incentive should be given to the players to enhance their interest in their respective games. All employees in the government and private sectors should have special quota for sportsmen.
xii) Each sports body should have representation from the Standing Committee of the Senate and National Assembly to monitor their working.
xiii) All sports body must be accountable to Ministry of Sports/ PSB.
xiv) The Ministry should take steps for legislation in this regard in collaboration with Ministry of Law. This includes Pakistan Cricket Board. Ministry of Sport should be represented on all boards.
xv) Inputs from ex-players and technocrats should be taken in formulation of sports policy to achieve better results.-PR