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Minister directs PSB to hold sports seminar

By our correspondents
September 01, 2016

KARACHI: Dejected by Pakistan’s decline in sports, particularly the cricket team’s loss against England in the third One-day International at Trent Bridge on Tuesday, the federal minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) Riaz Hussain Pirzada on Wednesday directed the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) to hold a seminar on sports later this month to discuss how to lift the nation’s sports.

The minister asked the PSB to hold the seminar in the third week of this month at the Pakistan Sports Complex in Islamabad.

The minister had a meeting with senior officials of his ministry and the PSB at his office on Wednesday.

Pirzada said that Pakistan never faced such a distressing situation. “The government cannot tolerate such a humiliating situation,” the minister was quoted as saying.

The PSB said in a press release that the minister directed the officials at the helm of affairs of sports to arrange an immediate sports seminar of all the stakeholders with a view to take stock of the present situation and make recommendations for immediate remedial measures for consideration by the Prime Minister.

He promised full support of his ministry for bringing improvement in the country’s sports standard through both short and long-term plans.

Pakistan has also been an ineffective force in Olympic sports.

In the recently held Rio Olympics, Pakistan fielded only seven players, none of whom had directly qualified.

This was also the first time that Pakistan hockey team did not feature in the Olympics since its debut in 1948 London Games.