No progress in departmental sports revival

ISLAMABAD: Some leading departments have stayed away from the National Hockey Championship under way in Karachi. Similarly, there has been no progress in reviving departmental soccer teams despite clear instructions from the Prime Minister.

Both Sui Southern and Sui Northern, PIA, Port Qasim, HBL, and UBL stayed away from the prestigious National Hockey Championship. Even the National Bank registered their team in the Championship at the eleventh hour. Just four days ahead of the start of the Championship, the NBP had no plans of fielding a team in the event. Sanity then prevailed as at the eleventh hour the administration sanctioned the team’s participation.

Contrary to hollow promises, fake claims, there has been no progress for the revival of departmental teams, especially in hockey and soccer. Poor man sport football is the worst hit game. The departments like SNGPL, SSGC, KPT, National Bank, ZTBL, PTV and Civil Aviation have yet to revive teams. The worst part is that hundreds of players are jobless and are desperately waiting for the revival of departmental sports to get back on the playing fields.

A football player whose only job was to play soccer for his department is financially broke.” I was one of the top soccer players who earned a name at national level through hard work. Once the PTI government banned departmental sports a few years back, I was left jobless. My job was to play football as I have no other expertise. Now I am totally struggling financially. The moment I heard about the revival of departmental sports I was excited to get back on the field. Years have passed since. I am still waiting for a call from my department but there is no news whether the football team will be re-established. No one is pursuing the PM directive as no department has revived its football team,” he said.

Same is the plight of hundreds of other players who are desperately waiting for the revival of departmental sports. The onus of failure rests entirely with the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC). The Ministry during the last two years has failed to make department executives realise the urgency of matter and the directives they receive from the PM.

The leading departments including forces and Wapda have always maintained their interest in developing sports despite the PTI government’s decision to disband departmental teams. Others including Sui Southern and Northern, the majority of banks including PIA, Habib Bank, and a host of other banks and departments wasted no time stopping sports activities in all major team/individual sports.

Footballers who had been hired by the SNGPL and other departments have been waiting for their salaries for months now. The same is the case in hockey where all these departments did not move an inch since the PM Shehbaz Sharif issued directives in 2022 during his first tenure in office.

“Not a single department which disbanded its hockey team during the PTI government has restored hockey outfits or started hiring any player for their teams,” a Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) official when contacted said. "Even those who were given contracts are no more with these departments. We have requested these departments time and again to send teams to national events but to no avail. Even a few weeks back, we sent letters to departments to send entries for the National Hockey Championship but no reasonable response so far has been received," he added. The toothless IPC has wasted almost two years to execute a departmental sports revival plan. Not an inch of progress has so far been noticed.