Facilities at Nishtar Park Sports Complex inspected

LAHORE:A delegation of senior officers of National Management Course (NMC) visited different sports facilities and venues at the Nishtar Park Sports Complex (NPSC) on Thursday.

The senior officers, who are taking the course for the promotion from grade 20 to 21, inspected the National Hockey Stadium, NPSC Gymnasium Hall, Punjab Stadium and Punjab International Swimming Complex during their visit.

DG Youth Affairs and Sports Punjab Pervez Iqbal briefed the officers in detail about multiple features of sports facilities and other important issues. During the briefing, Pervez Iqbal said that there are 538 sports facilities in the Punjab province.

“Out of 538 sports facilities, 119 are in Lahore division, 85 in Bahawalpur, 64 in Faisalabad, 58 in Rawalpindi, 50 in Gujranwala, 42 each in Sargodha and DG Khan, 41 in Sahiwal and 37 sports facilities are in Multan division”.

He said that the sports clubs were registered for the first time in the history of Punjab province. “A sufficient grant will also be given to sports clubs of the province. More than 120,000 players from different clubs will participate in CM Khelta Punjab Games,” he added.

Elaborating further Pervez Iqbal said that for the first time in the provincial history as many as 200 players will be given honorarium from Sports Endowment Fund for one year. “Punjab Sports Department is awarding scholarships to top performing 200 players in three categories – Platinum, Gold and Silver. In Platinum category, the athletes will be given a stipend of Rs70,000, in Gold category Rs50,000 while Rs30,000 will be given to athletes in Silver category for one year”.

DG Youth Affairs said that the prime objective of Sports Endowment Fund is player development across the province. This programme will help a lot in finding several new talented athletes.

The NMC officers also asked different questions from DG Youth Affairs and Sports Punjab about the sports policy and other important issues. They asked about the role different sports boards, associations and federations, clubs and criteria of selection etc. In response to these queries, Pervez Iqbal gave comprehensive replies.

The delegation of National Management Course was comprised of Aqeel Yusuf, Khurram Shahzad, Irfan Anjum, Ibadullah Azam, Shafqat Ali Khan Niazi, Shoaib Sarwar, Umar Ali Khan, Shahzana Durrani, Shariq Kamal Siddiqui and M Hafeezullah. Director Sports Yasmeen Akhtar, Director Admin M Kaleem, Deputy Director Zahoor Ahmed and Ata-ur-Rehman were also present on this occasion.