‘WADA-approved testing laboratory be established in Pakistan’

KARACHI: A WADA-approved testing laboratory should be established in Pakistan in order to curb the practice of doping violations by national athletes, said a top official of a sports federation while talking to ‘The News’.

“Doping incidents occur not due to lack of awareness among the athletes but due to lack of infrastructure and financial resources to conduct doping tests at the national level,” he added.

He said that more than 90 percent of the athletes involved in doping violations are fully aware that they are using a banned substance.

Three Pakistan athletes were found guilty of doping offences in the 2019 SAF Games, which caused a lot of embarrassment to the country.

“Banned substances were used by these athletes to enhance their performance and win medals because here in Pakistan we don’t have facilities to get urine/blood samples tested from WADA-approved laboratories.

“If we have such a WADA-approved national laboratory we can easily test urine/blood samples of our medal winners during national championships and national games,” said the official.

He said there was need for sufficient funds for getting the tests done from WADA-approved laboratories from abroad.

“Funds for the above-mentioned tests have to be allocated by the government as the national sports federations cannot do that with their very limited financial resources,” reasoned the official.

He added that nothing had been done by the government, and there were laboratories only in Qatar and India in the region.

“Dr Waqar Ahmed, Chairman Anti-Doping Organization of Pakistan (ADOP), is in the best position to advise the government in this regard,” he said.

It is pertinent to mention here that last year in August PSB launched an aggressive campaign to raise awareness about anti-doping among national athletes.