Parallel bodies issue prevents athletes from competing

KARACHI: The parallel bodies issue prevented the country’s athletes from featuring in the 4th Inter-Provincial Games which exploded into action at Qayyum Sports Complex, Peshawar, on Sunday.

‘The News’ learnt that Sindh and Balochistan had fielded two athletics teams each. Both provinces have two athletics associations. One is affiliated with the Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) and the other is affiliated with the relevant provincial Olympic association.

Sources said that the Games organisers took a stiff stand and said that they would allow only those provincial athletics bodies which were associated with the relevant provincial Olympic associations.

They said that the AFP-affiliated KP Athletics Association president Habib-ur-Rehman and KP Olympic Association president Syed Aqil Shah had a spat on the issue. ‘The News’ tried to contact both the officials but they did not receive the calls. POA secretary Khalid Mehmood also did not respond to the calls from this correspondent.

In both Sindh and Balochistan the athletics associations which are affiliated with the AFP are not recognised by the relevant provincial Olympic associations. The sources said that a committee had been constituted to resolve the issue but the matter was unresolved till filing of the story. “It will affect the talented athletes, which is unfortunate,” an AFP source said.

Earlier, the president Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) Lt Gen (retd) Arif Hassan formally inaugurated the Games at a picaresque ceremony. As many as 1700 athletes and more than 160 officials are part of the showpiece in which players will compete in 25 disciplines. Male athletes are competing in 25 and female players in 11 disciplines. Cycling and judo are not part of the competitions because of the strained relations between these federations and POA.

Golf and shooting are also not part of the spectacle which will conclude on Tuesday (tomorrow).Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir are featuring in the competitions for the first time.

Arif appreciated the step of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government for approving a grant of Rs40 million for the Games. The main venues are the newly constructed Abdul Wali Khan Sports Complex, Charsadda, Hayatabad Sports Complex, Peshawar, Peshawar Sports Complex and University Campus Peshawar. The traditional dance of various areas of the country added to the beauty of the Games which have been launched amid water-tight security.