ISLAMABAD: While strongly criticising the last interim government over its decision to put the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) under the ambit of the Cabinet Division, National Assembly Standing Committee on Inter-provincial Coordination on Tuesday recommended the PCB to be placed under the IPC ministry again.

The IPC committee, which met here at the Pakistan Sports Complex with MNA Sanaullah Khan Mastikhel in the chair, unanimously recommended that the PCB should be put under the ambit of IPC ministry, noting 44 other sports federations were operating under it.

Sanaullah said that the caretaker government, in violation of its mandate, decided to remove the PCB from the IPC domain and placed it under the ambit of the Cabinet Division.

“All decisions [related to the PCB] made by the caretaker government stand dissolved,” the chairman of the committee said while adding that only elected representatives could make any such decision.

Sanaullah said that just a few days before the formation of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif-led government this year, the interim government on Feb 19 through a notification placed the PCB under the Cabinet Division.

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“We want to know the reasons [as to] why the PCB is a holy cow,” he wondered as the committee decided to write a letter to the PM to withdrew the Feb 19 notification issued by the interim government.

Expressing his displeasure over the absence of PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi in the NA committee meeting, Sanaullah said he should be summoned to the next meeting.

“We know he [PCB chairman] is the [federal] interior minister as well but he will have to attend [the] committee meetings,” the MNA maintained.

Later talking to media, Sanaullah urged India to send its cricket team to Pakistan to play the ICC Champions Trophy insisting politics should not be mixed with sports.

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Giving a briefing to the committee, Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) director general Yasir Pirzada informed the committee about the progress made by the PSB during the last five years.

According to Yasir, the PSB during the said period trained over 4,000 athletes while facilitating their participation in international competitions in which Pakistan won 154 medals, including 38 gold.

Initiatives such as the establishment of the Arshad Nadeem High Performance Academy and the upgrading of sports infrastructure highlight PSB’s commitment to excellence, he added.

The PSB director general further said that a new sports policy had also been forwarded to the government for approval.

He added that a new award policy had also been made under which national champions of a sport would now be given Rs1 million as prize money. Under new rules, the PSB official said, Paris Paralympic Games bronze medallist Haider Ali will get a reward of Rs5 million.

Yasir also informed the NA committee that the PSB in the past five years disbursed grants exceeding Rs1 billion to national sports federations and awarded Rs45.25 million to medal-winning athletes.

Published in Dawn, November 20th, 2024