Mehwish Hayat visits girls training camp in Sukkur, vows to promote hockey in Pakistan

KARACHI: Mehwish Hayat, one of the leading showbiz artists of the country, has focused herself to support sports, especially hockey, in Pakistan and often spares her time for working towards the promotion of games.

A week ago, she had made a surprise visit to the Abdul Sattar Edhi Hockey Stadium to witness a match of the National Hockey Championship.

Mehwish was welcomed by hockey legends Hanif Khan, Iftekhar Saeed and Haider Hussain at the stadium.

She met players, coaches and tournament officials there and expressing her keen interest in the game of hockey, she asked if they needed any support.

The film/TV artist also played hockey for a while for which former Pakistan player Haider Hussain gave her some tips.

Now, continuing her support to the game, the star actress yesterday visited a girls training camp in Sukkur to witness them playing hockey. She also played the game with girls there.

Mehwish Hayat, who has recently been awarded the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz by the President of Pakistan, said in a tweet that “It was a real pleasure to meet these fabulous girls in Sukkur and support this wonderful initiative. Glad to see that hockey has a future”.

While visiting the Abdul Sattar Edhi Hockey Stadium in Karachi last Friday, she said: "We talk a lot about cricket. We must realise that we have won more titles in hockey than in cricket. We have won four World Cups and three Olympic titles".

She further said: “We are too much focused on cricket. Hockey needs our focus as well".

Mehwish urged the government to take drastic steps to revive hockey in Pakistan.

The award-winning artist agreed that showbiz celebrities must play a role to support all the neglected sports by highlighting the achievements on their respective forums.

She added that mainstream media and social media attention is very important to help any sports grow.