Pakistan will be fielding its smallest ever contingent at next year’s Olympic Games in Rio because the country’s hockey team will stay away from it as it failed to qualify for the world’s most prestigious sporting spectacle.

Because of its high standard in the past Pakistan’s absence from the Olympic Games in hockey will be deeply felt by the whole world. Last month in a pre-Olympic seminar of the chef de missions of the participating nations in Rio, which was attended by the representatives of around 206 countries from across the world, Pakistan’s Syed Aqil Shah was questioned by several members about Pakistan hockey team’s failure to qualify for Olympics.

It is really a sad story because Pakistan has had a golden history in hockey. Pakistan won three gold medals, three silver and two bronze.

The gold medals came in 1960 Rome Olympics, 1968 (Mexico) and 1984 (Los Angeles).

The silver medals came in 1956 (Melbourne), 1964 (Tokyo), and 1972 (Munich).

The bronze medals came in 1976 (Montreal) and 1992 (Barcelona).

Pakistan also clinched a couple of bronze medals in wrestling and boxing.

In 1960 Rome Olympics Pakistan’s wrestler Mohammad Bashir claimed bronze medal.

In 1988 Seoul Olympics, boxer Hussain Shah made the country proud with a bronze medal.

Pakistan’s failure to qualify for Rio Olympics in hockey has prompted Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) to request the world sports governing body (IOC) for a few wild card entries.

And Aqil Shah, who will be the chef de mission of Pakistan’s contingent during the Rio Olympics, has requested the IOC that Pakistan should be awarded wild card entries in athletics (one male, one female), swimming (one male, one female) and one male each in shooting, tennis, boxing, sailing, wrestling and weightlifting.

The purpose of the request which Aqil made in Rio was to augment Pakistan’s contingent for Rio Games which otherwise would be very small.

Pakistan would not have faced such humiliation had it focused on other sports as well. In the past, Pakistani boxers used to feature regularly in Olympics, but 2004 Athens Games proved to be the last edition for our pugilists as our boxers failed to qualify for 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2012 London Olympics.

And for Rio too there is almost no chance as Pakistan’s standard in the sport has considerably declined. Pakistan fielded eight boxers in the Asian Championship in Bangkok recently and only Awais Ali Khan and Mehmood-ul-Hasan managed to win their initial bouts.

The continental event served as qualifiers for the World Championships to be held in Doha in October.

The World Championships serve as qualifiers for Rio Olympics.

Mehmood, who fell in the quarter-final of heavyweight, still has a minor chance of qualifying for World Championships. It will become clear most probably by September 15.

Pakistani boxers still have to appear in the Asian qualifying round for Olympics to be held in China in March next year. But I have no hopes as the current lot needs quality preparation and Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF) will not be able to provide that.  The government is not serious to promote the sport.

Lack of proper planning and understanding on the part of the PBF also marred the country’s journey in the Asian Boxing Championship.

Pakistan’s head coach Ali Bakhsh could not proceed to Bangkok with the boxers who had trained with him for seven months.

Ali Bakhsh’s passport was in Dubai which had been sent for obtaining visa of Samoa which hosted the Commonwealth Youth Games recently.

It was a big lapse on the part of PBF. As per rules a nation could not field its boxing team in any international event without an AIBA 3-star coach.

Although Mohammad Liaquat was with the Pakistani boxers in Bangkok, he is a 1-star coach and the PBF had to hire services of a coach from Taiwan for the purpose.

I ask the PBF if the Asian Championship was important or the Commonwealth Youth Games?

The PBF also did not try to improve its relations with major stakeholders WAPDA who did not release its boxers for the continental affair.

Despite all the dark aspects of Pakistan’s sports there is still hope that the country will at least qualify for the Rio Games in judo. Japan-based Shah Hussain is slowly progressing towards his goal.

A few days ago he won his first bout against Bueno Manuel from Uruguay in the World Championships in Astana but lost to Korrel Michael of the Netherlands in his second bout. The first win, however, will certainly improve his ranking. He still has to feature in a handful of Rio Olympics qualifiers till May 2016.

It is hoped that the son of former Pakistan Olympic medalist boxer Hussain Shah will re-write history when he becomes the first judoka of the country to appear in Olympics.

Pakistan won a bronze medal in wrestling in 1960. But now we can’t even think about it. It does not mean that the sport of wrestling in the country has died down but the wrestlers are not being trained the way they should have been.

The POA, federations and the PSB are responsible for the decline of sports in the country which has a lot of talent in almost every sports discipline.

There was no need to beg for wild card entries for Rio Games after the hockey team failed to qualify.

Our sports officials are not interested in sports promotion but they are mostly eager to get foreign tours.

Former Director General of PSB Brigadier Rodham and former DG Sports Board Punjab (SBP) Brigadier Sarfraz were different men. They did not cross the border of Pakistan when they were serving at key posts in their respective boards.

Unless our sports officials deliver sincerely Pakistan will not progress in the field of sports.

It is right time to set our priorities and to decide how to develop our sports. Focusing only on hockey or one or two other sports would not serve the purpose.

Disciplines like shooting, boxing, wrestling, weightlifting, athletics, judo, karate, wushu, handball and volleyball should be up on the priority list. When Pakistan begins winning medals in these disciplines sponsorship will automatically come.