Poor facilities marring sports activities in city

KARACHI: The sports activities in Karachi, particularly for women, have been on a decline due to lack of funding, dilapidated state of sports grounds and law and order issues. As a result, the involvement of youngsters in unhealthy activities has increased, according to a new investigative report.

The report, based on interviews from provincial officials, experts, players, sports observers, and prepared under fellowship programme organised by Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF), revealed that 90 percent of sports ground in the city do not meet the required standards.

According to the report, in Karachi’s Lyari area, boxing remains a popular sport with women also taking part in competitions. The Lyari Boxing Girls Club trains women players and organises games for them in the area. The club also won four gold medals at the Pakistan Day Boxing Tournament 2019.

There are 29 first-class cricket grounds in the city, with 15 football grounds, 3 hockey stadiums, 4 squash facilities and 6 courses for golf, the report said, highlighting the need to establish more sports grounds in the city. The provincial government has set an optimistic tax collection target of Rs 288.709 billion for FY20. For this purpose, the scope of Sales Tax has been expanded to more services, including sports, effective from July 1 2019, which has been previously out of the Sindh Sales Tax (SST) net. Thus, the indoor sports and game centers are taxed at rate of 13 percent.

When contacted, Secretary Sports Sindh Syed Imtiaz Ali Shah said that his department was fully committed to promoting sports activities in the city and other parts of Sindh. He said that they were providing funds to the registered sports associations of cricket, football and hockey.

“Some new sports grounds have also been established in the city,” Imtiaz said. He said that after the 18th constitutional amendment, seven sections of his department, including the National Coaching Centre near National Stadium and Youth Hostel, have still not been given to Sindh government despite repeated appeals.

In an interview, Shahida Kausar Farooq, the chairperson of Subhe Nau, an NGO working for promoting tennis in Pakistan, said that her organisation was sponsoring women’s and men’s tennis games nationally and internationally. But due to lack of funding from the federal, Sindh and city governments, tennis activities in Karachi have declined drastically.

She added that a few games are organised in Islamabad each year, which need to be promoted. President of Marta Women’s Football Club, Raees Khan, lamented the fact that there is not a single football ground for women in the city.

“The federal, Sindh and city governments have deprived women football of funds from their budgets,” he said. Raees alleged that a budget of around Rs 330 million was allocated for 2019-20 for sports organisations, but nothing is being given to the football clubs.

“It is height of negligence that not a single football ground is there for women in the city.” He informed that 10 football grounds have fall victim to encroachment. Bilal Hussain, a cricket player and sports fan, said that the city needs new cricket grounds and there is also a need to renovate the existing ones.

“Karachi has great talent but there are insufficient facilities for sports,” Bilal lamented. “The government must ask all the educational institutions to boost sports activities and should also provide funding to them,” he said. “There should also be dedicated sports facilities in all schools of the city,” he suggested.

In an interview, Director Sports Sindh, Shahzad Pervaiz Bhatti said that his department was facing shortage of staff. Shahzad said that law and order issues and use of smartphones by youngsters have also hit sports activities.