Minister boasts massive increase in sports budget

PESHAWAR: Provincial Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs Mehmood Khan on Saturday said that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has increased the sports budget from Rs780 million to Rs13 billion during its nearly five-year term in the province.

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the final round of 3rd edition of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Inter-Regional Under-23 Games at the Peshawar Sports Complex here, he lauded the efforts of the Directorate of Sports for successfully holding the event for third consecutive time. The provincial government has focused its energies on the promotion of sports and welfare of the athletes and spending huge funds in this regard, he added.

The government had given Rs30.5 million sports scholarship to athletes, the minister said, adding the winners of the previous two editions of the Under-23 games had already been given awards worth up to Rs.25 million.

Mehmood Khan urged the youth to avail this opportunity and continue hard work to be selected to represent the province at the national and international level. He added that the provincial government had established and developed 100 grounds across the province, adding development work on 30 more grounds would be completed by June.

He said that Rs200 million would be allocated for the establishment of academies of various games in the province. “The KP government has also provided Rs40 million for organising the 4th edition of Inter-Provincial Games in the province as well,” he added.

Earlier, a colourful inaugural ceremony of the games was held at the Peshawar Spots Complex. A beautiful display of fireworks was also carried out on the occasion.

Mehmood Khan was the chief guest. Former world squash champion Qamar Zaman, Director General Directorate of Sports Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Junaid Khan, Director General Youth Affairs Asfandyar Khan, Director Female Games Miss Rashida Ghaznavi, former and present sportspersons, office-bearers of various sports bodies, government officials attended the event.

The commencement of the event was announced soon after an international athlete, who won silver in South Asian Games in 110m race, Muhammad Shah lit the Olympic cauldron at the Peshawar Sports Complex.

A beautiful display of paragliding, gymnastic and karate was held while the students of Government Middle School for Girls (Ibrahimzai) presented PT-show and received applause from the audience, which mostly consisted of children and youth. Traditional dances were also presented soon after the male and female contingents of all the six regions marched passed the dice of the chief guest.

Around 3,500 athletes from Peshawar, Mardan, Swat, Kohat, Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan and Hazara regions were participating in the three days event.

Competitions of 43 different sports disciplines including 26 males and 17 females would be held in the games. The Sports’ competitions involving male athletes include football, hockey, basketball, volleyball, squash, badminton, table tennis, tennis, athletics, gymnastics, judo, karate, wrestling, kabaddi, tug-of-war, taekwondo, cycling, handball, snooker, wushu, boxing, archery, mui-thai, weightlifting and full-contact karate.

Female athletes will take part in cricket, hockey, basketball, volleyball, netball, squash, badminton, table tennis, athletics, baseball, judo, taekwondo, handball and wushu.

The competitions are being organised at the Peshawar, and Hayatabad sports complexes and University of Peshawar, Peshawar Board and Abdul Wali Khan Sports Complex in Charsadda, simultaneously.

Directorate of Sports Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Junaid Khan said the games involved around 35,000 male and female youth in the trials conducted in January for the games in which 11,500 were shortlisted.

He said that 8,000 athletes participated at the inter-district level games in which 3,500 are competing in the final round.