The infighting within Pakistan’s sports officialdom continues to hurt national athletes as it feared that the country will not be able to feature in the 3rd Islamic Solidarity Games to be held from September 22 to October 1 in Indonesia.
Government-backed Pakistan Olympic Association (POA), which is battling to topple the IOC-recognised POA, will not be able to send the national contingent to Indonesia
Sources said that “The organisers have asked the government-backed POA that they are taking up the issue at the highest level and will then intimate them about the final outcome,” a source said.
Sources said that the organisers had extended invitation to the foreign ministry of Pakistan. The foreign ministry had then forwarded it to the ministry of the Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) and from there it was sent to the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) and then to the Akram Sahi-led POA.
Sources close to Sahi said that he had met the foreign secretary a few days back and he had ordered for pursuing the case but so far nothing concrete has been happened.
The Sahi-led POA has already sent the required documents of the athletes and officials to the organisers. Pakistan are to feature in the athletics, basketball, badminton, karate and wushu.
The event is just six days away and it is extremely doubtful that the government-backed POA will be able to send its contingent.
The uncertainty has also confused the players.
“I am undergoing tough training but I don’t know whether we will be able to go to Indonesia,” a player said.
Meanwhile, a source in the Arif Hasan-led POA said that they were going to send their contingent. “We had sent the entries in time and all the formalities have been fulfilled and I hope that we will be able to send the athletes to Indonesia,” the source said.
But a senior official in the POA said that Arif’s group will not be able to send the contingent to the Islamic Games due to financial problems while Akram Sahi group will not be able to send the contingent because of their recognition problem. And so Pakistan will have to face humiliation by missing the Games.
