Mr. Prime Minister, like so many sections and strata of society in this country, Pakistan’s sporting fraternity is also looking towards the new government with the fond hope that it will address its many woes.
The plight of Pakistan’s sports has worsened in the last one year and a half, specifically because Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) has overstepped its mandate and in direct contravention of the Olympic Charter and international norms intervened in an attempt to take over the affairs of the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA), going to the extent of creating a parallel POA manned by non-entities.
Mr. Prime Minister, we want to bring to your kind notice that this brazen intervention has invited the wrath of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and it has – as is its norm and practice – put Pakistan under strict observation, and after many warnings that were not heeded to by the PSB, the probability of global sanctions is seriously high.
Without any fault of its own, in fact perhaps without being aware of it, Mr. Prime Minister, your government that has just been installed will have to tackle the international ignominy and opprobrium that the PSB is working overtime to invite on Pakistan.
Mr. Prime Minister, as your government was about to be sworn into office, the PSB redoubled its nefarious efforts probably knowing that it will be stopped from its reprehensible actions once the new dispensation took over and has sanctioned an unprecedented Rs.80 million of taxpayers’ money to the illegal body it has formed in the name of 32nd National Games. These Games are a POA property and the travesty is that these very same Games have already been held in December 2012 with the PSB deliberately denying any support.
As a result of the inevitable IOC sanctions in response to the blatant violation of its Olympic Charter due to the intervention of a government organ (in this case, the PSB), Pakistani athletes shall be barred from ALL INTERNATIONAL PARTICIPATION across all Olympic disciplines.
Mr. Prime Minister the POA’s General Council – with all National Federations and other stakeholders present – has met in Lahore today (June 8, 2013) and resolved to appeal to you to help spare this country and our beloved flag the disgrace and humiliation that India is just trying to come out of after the IOC had suspended its membership in December 2012 by rescinding all PSB actions that violate the IOC’s instructions and Charter.
We further demand that the PSB be reformed and instead of wasting the precious little resources that are dedicated to our sports each year on its bloated bureaucracy, it should be made to revert to its own Charter and devote itself to the promotion of Pakistan Sports seeking the support and providing assistance to the National Federations so that we could truly become an all-round sporting nation earning glory in the sporting arenas of the continent and globally.
This is an issue of immediate concern, and Pakistan’s sporting community expects prompt action from a sports loving Prime Minister.
