KP govt plans new playgrounds, free education for players

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has drawn up plans to establish 47 playgrounds on emergency basis and provide free education to the players to promote sports activities across the province.
This was stated by Secretary Sports, Tourism, Culture, Archaeology, Museums & Youth Affairs Department Muhammad Azam Khan while receiving a briefing from Director General Sports Mian Adil Iqbal on Monday.
He said the department was committed to promoting sports in every nook and corner of the province to engage the youth in healthy and positive activities and prevent them from falling into hands of the militants and anti-social elements.
Briefing the secretary and other officials of the department, Mian Adil Iqbal said that a total of 75 playgrounds would be established while work was in progress on 28 game venues at various districts and tehsils of the province.
The official said the Directorate General of Sports would also sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Elementary & Secondary Education Department for acquiring and developing playgrounds in schools and colleges.
He said after the MoU, the playgrounds at educational institutions would be made available to the teams and clubs of various games on subsidised fee after teaching hours.
Elaborating various steps taken for the promotion of sports, the official said that the directorate had purchased gears worth Rs21.5 million of different games, which had already been transferred to the respective district sports officers and deputy commissioners for onward distribution to the players.
He said the quality of sports equipment was checked by a committee headed by famous former squash legend Qamar Zaman.
The Sports director general said talent hunt programmes would be launched across the province to pick players of squash, cricket, football, hockey, tennis and other games.
He said the directorate would provide respective sports kits to the selected players and impart them rigorous training by prominent sports legends. About the future initiatives, the official said the Directorate of Sports was planning to sponsor the education of outstanding players of various games.
He said this was a long-term project that would help motivate players to play games as well as get quality education. Most of the players, he said, were coming from the humble families and they could not afford to continue sports and studies simultaneously.
Enumerating the achievements, he said that for the first time the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa players outclassed Punjab and other provinces in all national level games. Out of 11 competitions, he said the players from KP had won seven first positions and three second positions in different games.
About the cricket talent hunt programme, the official said that 6,000 students participated in the event, of which 48 were selected in the first phase. He said the selected players were imparted training by famous cricket legends, including Wajahatullah Wasti and others.