By Abdul Jabbar Faisal
ISLAMABAD (April 24, 2020):-Federal Minister for Inter Provincial Coordination (IPC), Dr Fahmida Mirza disbursed the cash awards among the 11 medal winnings athletes of wresting and squash of the 13th South Asian Games, which were held in Nepal, here in a ceremony on Friday.
It is pertinent to mention that in the regional mini-Olympics Games, Pakistan contingent won total 133 medals comprising of 32 Gold, 41 Silver and 60 Bronze medals. For appreciating untiring efforts of our sportspersons who brought laurels for the country and support them financially at this critical time of need when all the sports activities have been still stand/suspended worldwide due to Covid-19 pandemic, Dr.Fehmida Mirza, Minister for IPC/President PSB distributed cheques among 11 players of Pakistan Wresting and Squash teams in two different sessions to ensure their safety and observing SOPs set by the government.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister for IPC Dr. Fehmida Mirza congratulated to national players and expressed her sincere appreciation for winning sportsmen. She revealed that though the Ministry wanted to host a ceremony of national level by inviting the Honorable Prime Minister as the ‘Chief Guest’, however, due to current Covid-19 pandemic situation, the cash awards were distributed among the winners by inviting them in small batches.
She also added that the federal government was fully aware of the problems of sportspersons and playing its due role for promoting the sports in the country. She urged that the provinces might come forward for uplifting standards of the games in the country and promote sports from grass root level by adopting best practices of the world as the provinces are primarily responsible for the subject under the 18th Amendment to the Constitution.
The participating players were included Inam Butt, Inayat Ullah, Abdur Rehman Gold Medalists of Wrestling and players from Squash namely Tayyab Aslam and Farhan Mehboob, Gold Medalists of Squash lauded the efforts made by the federal government and Minister for IPC/President PSB to support them financially at this critical time of need.
The financial help by the government will go a long way to support their families and making efforts for their future endeavors. They also appreciated and thanked the then Secretary Ministry of IPC/Chef-de-Mission (Akbar Durrani) who visited every venue to encourage the sportspersons and also arranged sessions for boosting their morale and making them prepare aiming to win the gold medals.
The Secretary Generals from both the Federations (Wrestling & Squash) assured their full support to the government and opined that without the necessary patronage of the government, the federations would not be able to achieve their objectives and execute their activities. They also requested to provide financial assistance to the national sports federations for smooth functioning.
