Stakeholders to discuss Pak Asiad contingent today

KARACHI: A vital meeting of the sports stakeholders would be held at the Olympic House in Lahore on Monday (today) to discuss the strength of the national contingent which will feature in the 18th Asian Games to be held in Indonesia next month.

The meeting, which will be chaired by the Pakistan Olympic Association’s (POA) chief Lt Gen (retd) Arif Hassan, would be attended by the representatives of national federations and Pakistan Sports Board (PSB). The PSB had told the POA that the Board wanted to reduce the strength of the contingent as the state would not be able to sponsor more than 140 members for the quadrennial extravaganza slated to be held in the Indonesian cities of Jakarta and Palembang from August 18 to September 2.

Initially, it had been decided that a 397-member contingent would feature in the Asiad out of which around 300 would be financially supported by the Board. But due to lack of funds the Board seems to take a U-turn and is expected to take a tough decision which may spark protest in the ranks of those federations which have worked hard to prepare their sides for the most important competitions.

According to sources the PSB also intends not to sponsor team sports. This correspondent tried to contact the PSB senior official Azam Dar but he did not receive the calls.

Pakistan is set to feature in 36 disciplines in the spectacle. The Board had already announced that it would not sponsor football, table tennis, gymnastics and basketball. Because of the same issue Pakistan Basketball Federation (PBBF) has already decided that it would not send its team to Indonesia.

The meeting will be held in three groups. The group-1 meeting, which would begin at 12:30pm, would be attended by the representatives of archery, athletics, badminton, baseball, boxing, golf, football, gymnastics and handball.

The group-2 meeting, which will begin at 2pm, will be attended by the representatives from hockey, ju-jitsu, karate, kabaddi, rowing, rugby, sailing, shooting and squash.The federations have been informed that they will have to give presentations in order to highlight the medal prospects of their athletes in the Games.

Initially, lack of resources with the Board also damaged the preparation of the national contingent when the Board stopped the camps on May 25. And it was only on June 20 that the camps were resumed. The federations had been asked to keep the strength in the camps low.

The Board’s working this year has been affected due to various factors. After the retirement of Director General of PSB Dr Akhtar Nawaz Ganjera in February this year, Amir Ali Ahmed was brought in for three months. However before the expiry of his brief stint he was removed and brought in the sitting Acting DG Arif Ibrahim. However, a Grade-21 officer, Arif, seems to have failed to run the Board effectively. The Board had promised that it would send players of a few discipines abroad for tours to prepare for Asiad. Wrestling, wushu and boxing were the most prominent disciplines whose athletes were expected to undergo training on foreign soil. But so far no concrete step has been taken in that direction which has sabotaged Pakistan’s medals chances in the Asian Games.

In wushu Pakistan has never missed medal in the last three successive Asian Games but this time if the Board failed to give any foreign tour to the fighters of this discipline it would minimise their medal chances in the most competitive event.

Football is the only discipline in which Pakistan has been preparing well as Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) itself is supporting its camp. These days national football team is in Bahrain to prepare for the Asian Games. Pakistan is also featuring in the Asian Games in a handful of those disciplines whose federations are not affiliated with the PSB and POA.