Pro boxing organisers breach Covid-19 SOPs

ISLAMABAD: Blatant violations of the government’s Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for Covid-19 were seen during the professional boxing event in Islamabad as the organisers allowed around 2,000 spectators to gather despite repeated requests made by the government to follow SOPs to avoid danger involved in close contact.

The event was free for all and only five percent of the people present there were wearing masks and no one bothered to keep a safe distance from others. The crowd used to drink water from one glass and celebrate while hugging each other. Even the organisers were not using sanitisers and keeping a safe distance from others.

Saturday witnessed the highest number of positive cases in twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad during the last two months, however the spectators at boxing event were giving impression as if the coronavirus was a history now.

“I was only there to perform my professional duties. However, when inside the hall I witnessed that spectators were not following the SOPs I preferred to stay out in the open rather risking my health,” a local sports scribe said.

There was no discipline at the event. On the one hand, the Ministry for IPC is yet to give permission for start of many sports activities as well as establishment of camps, on the other the ministry had given free hand to professional boxing organisers as even Test captain Azhar Ali and boxer Amir Khan were seen sitting side by side without wearing any mask.

When an official of the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) was approached, he said the board had nothing to do with this event.

“We had provided this facility to Amir Khan to hold training camps and establish his academy. The event organisers did not get any permission from the PSB to hold the international competition at the facility. We came to know about the plan a couple of days ahead of the event when the foreign boxers had already reached Pakistan to feature in the competition,” the official said.

When asked that a PSB’s recently issued handout backed the event, the official said he was talking about the official permission.

“There is a process for holding such events. To get permission for organising such an event, an application must reach the PSB headquarters six weeks prior to start of the event. After that we forward it to the concerned departments in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as Ministry for IPC. No such application was received from the organisers and we had no other option but to recognize the event when all the foreign boxers had reached here.”

The PSB official, however, expressed his concern about the violations of the SOPs at the Amir Khan Complex.

“A few months back we were forced to close the complex for one month because of the positive cases following a gathering there,” the official added.

The event’s organisers, however, were reluctant to come out with their point of view. Amir’s manager Muhammad Anwaar did not attend the call and even did not respond to a message sent through WhatsApp in an effort to know that who was responsible for ignoring SOPs at the event.