Fehmida urges provinces to allocate huge fund for sports

Our correspondent

KARACHI: Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) Dr Fehmida Mirza on Sunday urged the provinces to allocate huge fund for sports. "After devolution more responsibility now rests on provinces who should allocate heavy budget for sports," Fehmida said during closing ceremony of the 12th Pakistan Premier Football League here on Sunday.

She said that personalities come and go, adding there was a great need of maintaining the system. "I will urge the Executive Committee of the new Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) to leave the customs of the past and fill the grounds with the players. We have an abundance of talent but we have kept the players out of the grounds," the minister said. Hinting at the visit of Brazilian star Kaka and Portugal's star Luis Figo to Pakistan Fehmida said that this reflected the trust on the current government.

Later during talks with the reporters the minister clarified that there was no interference from the government in the working of any national federation. "Federations are independent," she said.

"There is no role of the government in the working of federations. But if someone is unable to deliver for 15 years in any sport while serving as its head then he should think about it," the minister said. She said that the government was conducting audit of the federations.

"The government is conducting audit of the federations and I think football federation will also be among them," she said. It is pertinent to mention here that PFF is not in the last of 14 federations whose forensic audit is being conducted. The reason is that the PFF has already disaffiliated itself from the Paksitan Sports Board (PSB).

Fehmida said that Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) had been given Rs500m during the last five years. She also added that the federations themselves also should work for generating their own revenues.