Will serve sports again if get another chance: Pirzada

KARACHI: Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) Mian Riaz Hussain Pirzada Sunday said that he is happy with his work he has done for sports’ promotion in the country during his five-year tenure.

“I am fully satisfied and happy with the way I worked for sports’ promotion in my capacity as IPC minister. The playing fields were closed and we opened them. There were various challenges and we overcame them,” Pirzada told ‘The News’ in an interview.

When asked if he again gets a chance to serve as IPC minister he will accept the offer, Pirzada said he has passion for sports and will serve sports again if he gets another opportunity in the future.

Just few days before the expiry of his tenure as the federal minister, Pirzada-led Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) Executive Committee directed to initiate the process of insurance of athletes with the State Life Insurance Corporation.

“Through the step 100 athletes of each federation will be insured,” the minister said.

He also said that during his tenure 25,000 trees were planted at the Pakistan Sports Complex in Islamabad.

“And of them 10,000 pine trees have been gifted to us free of cost by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister,” Pirzada added.

Pirzada seemed very happy with the sitting Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.

“All credit goes to Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. He has done a commendable job for sports during his short time as the PM. Whenever I have sent him any file regarding fund he has approved it without wasting any time. And you know we gave cash awards to the athletes for winning medals in international events and disposed off several other matters,” the minister said.

“A grant of Rs500 million has also been approved by the PM. Its basic purpose is to make timely preparations for the South Asian Games which Pakistan is expected to host in 2020. For successful conduct of the South Asian Games we need to relay athletics tracks, upgrade swimming pools and to renovate various halls of the Pakistan Sports Complex,” Pirzada said.

He said for undertaking different projects a PC-1 of Rs2.5billion has already been approved. The minister said that he specified the Pakistan Sports Complex hostels only for the sportsmen to stay in.

“Before that the same facility used to be given to irrelevant people on rent. I abolished such practice and ordered that only players and their officials would utilise the same facility,” Pirzada said.

The minister said that in his tenure the Quaid-i-Azam Inter-Provincial Games were organised twice which was a big achievement.

“After Army did a great job to root out terrorism our ministry took the risk of going for holding the Quaid-i-Azam Inter-Provincial Games. The Islamabad DIG and various agencies helped us a lot to ensure staging of impressive shows in the federal capital in which thousands of athletes from across the country showcased their talent,” the minister added.

When asked about the conflict between PSB and Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) in the initial days of his tenure as federal minister, Pirzada recalled when he came to know that General (r) Sahi and his party were wrong he backtracked and restored working relations with the POA that helped the country to avoid international sanctions.

“And now due to courts decisions our football issue has also been resolved. And we have no issue with the FIFA now,” the minister said.

He said in his tenure a sports university was also established. “It has already been finalised. And soon under the Higher Education Commission classes would be initiated in some portion of the Pakistan Sports Complex in Islamabad,” he said.

He added that the new Director General of PSB would be recruited as per new rules.

“Although the recruitment process got delayed but eventually a new DG will be recruited as per new recruitment rules which have made under the directions of the Supreme Court. We have released Amir Ali Ahmed as acting DG PSB and he is being replaced by Rana Shakeel of accounts section of the IPC as new Acting DG,” Pirzada said.

He said he wanted that every society in the country gets sports facility.

“We used to write to every province that every society should have sports facilities. Barring Bahria Town no other society has sports facilities. I also wanted schools to play a leading role in preparing stuff for national duty in various sports disciplines,” Pirzada said.

When asked what advice he would give to the POA chief Lt Gen (r) Syed Arif Hasan, Pirzada said he should not keep distance from people.

“He is former General and is a man of protocol. He should not keep distance from people but rather should mix with them. And this would definitely leave an impact,” Pirzada said.