Govt plans to reopen sports facilities in phases after Eid

ISLAMABAD: Government of Pakistan plans to reopen sports facilities in three phases after Eidul Azha, revealed Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) during Commonwealth Countries Sports Ministers online meeting on Friday.

According to details available with ‘The News’, minister Dr Fehmida Mirza confirmed that sports activities will resume with individual events after Eid. “If everything goes according to the plan, team events will be followed and then it will be the turn of national or international events,” she said.

Though activities in tennis have already got under way adjacent to the Pakistan Sports Complex following three months of break, the government is expected to finalise Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for sports resumption in all other sports after Eid. Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) recently wrote a letter to the Minister of IPC to give go-ahead for the resumption of sports activities at national level by finalising SOPs for the purpose.

The Commonwealth countries’ ministers exchanged views on the impact of COVID-19 in their respective countries and hoped that by the time the Tokyo Olympics got under way in a year’s time, the vaccine for the virus would be available.

The IPC Minister recently met provincial sports ministers and directed them to come up with a plan for the resumption of sports activities in the country.