LAHORE: The Punjab Sports Board (PSB) has not renewed the contracts of its 103 daily-wage employees owing to financial constraints.

There is a growing concern that more employees in this category may face termination in the future due to these financial challenges.

The sports board has been offering these employees one-month contracts, but they did not receive renewed contracts as of Oct 1. Consequently, they are not reporting to work, but they remain hopeful that the PSB will issue new contracts soon.

However, a PSB official said a request had been submitted to the Punjab government on Aug 3, 2023, to increase the annual grant-in-aid from a mere Rs100 million to Rs500m. Despite two months having passed, no positive response has been received. Consequently, the PSB finds itself unable to meet its financial obligations, including the salaries of daily wage workers.

No contracts renewal for 103 employees

It merits mentioning that the Punjab government has allocated substantial funds for the development of new infrastructure. However, it has not earmarked resources to hire the necessary staff to maintain these sports complexes. As a result, several areas, particularly small cities and towns, are witnessing the deterioration of these infrastructure projects.

This year, the Punjab government allocated Rs10 billion for the construction of a new stadium, but it did not respond to the PSB’s request to increase the annual grant from Rs100m to Rs500m.

According to a summary submitted to the caretaker Punjab chief minister, the PSB receives a grant-in-aid of Rs100m from the government. Out of this amount, Rs30.8m are allocated as an annual grant to nearly 30 provincial sports associations, leaving the rest for the maintenance of the entire Nishtar Sports Complex. This complex houses international-standard sports facilities, including tennis, swimming, football, and the world’s largest hockey stadium, the National Hockey Stadium. With the suspension of 103 employees and more in the future, the upkeep of these stadiums and complexes is at risk.

It claims that smaller provinces like Balochistan and Sindh provide grant-in-aid to their respective sports boards in the amounts of Rs504m and Rs425m, respectively whereas Punjab, the most populous province, receives only Rs100m.

In the summary, the SBP highlighted its obligations, which it could not perform with such a low grant-in-aid.

“The SBP has to organise, promote and develop sports in the province, arrange training and coaching programme/camps, organise annual youth competitions in different games, and to release annual/special grants in aid to provincial sports associations, clubs and other sports organisations, to provide rewards, scholarships, honoraria and incentives (purchase of sports goods and equipment etc) to prominent/deserving sports persons and to keep the maintenance of stadia ... ,” the summary reads.

Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2023