Sports have been suffering a lot since the devolution of sports to the provinces under the 18th Amendment to the constitution. Pakistan Sports Board’s (PSB) was not devolved to provinces but its powers were reduced. As a result, our sports suffered at the central level. We don’t have money for foreign tours, we don’t have money to hire foreign coaches, we are unable to even support our top athletes in their efforts to qualify for Olympics and even our federations have been finding it difficult to send teams to participate in international events.

So problems are manifold. No big increase was seen in the PSB’s non-development expenditure in the budget announced recently by the federal government. From Rs1,002 million it was increased to only Rs1,012 million - a raise of just Rs10 million. An expert says that even this is due to finance SOPs and that in value there has been no increase. Yes, a substantial amount has been earmarked for development as the Board has to complete several important projects during the next fiscal year.

After devolution, Ministry of IPC is running sports. There are no technocrats there. Those who are there don’t have the vision required to improve sports. Here in this article I would like to suggest a sports model which I hope will work in future if we make wholehearted efforts. If we go for this model we can achieve glory in sports in the coming years.

Model: We should abolish the PSB. We should form a Pakistan Sports Council (PSC) instead. The PSC will have representatives from all provinces, Pakistan Olympic Association (POA), National Sports Federations (NSFs), Higher Education Commission (HEC), Chairman POA Athletes Commission, a handful of top coaches of Pakistan, National Anti-Doping Organisation (NADO), representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Interior and business tycoons of the country.

It should have its charter. One of the key clauses of its charter should be that every province should give for example 10 percent or 20 percent - whatever the PSC Board decides - of its annual budget to the PSC. The PSC should be chaired by the Director Generals of the Provincial Sports Boards on rotation basis. If the PSC legislates otherwise, then a DG can be hired from open market.

The PSC will have a corporate structure and it will also generate its revenues which will add to the fund which it will get from provinces. After forming PSC, the PSB’s infrastructure in the provinces should be handed over to the relevant provinces while the Pakistan Sports Complex, Islamabad, should be handed over to the Pakistan Sports Council.

The most indispensable employees (those with technical knowledge) of the PSB can be adjusted in the PSC and the rest in other federal departments across the country. All federations should be affiliated units of the PSC. They will have their representatives in the PSC Board and the PSC Executive Committee. The main function of the PSC will be to administer sports at the central level like what the PSB is doing. The importance of such a model is that the country will get the most cohesive sports system and it will put together all the stakeholders.

The PSC will suggest ways to the provinces to improve their sports and hopefully positive results will be achieved.

The Prime Minister can act as PSC’s patron in order to further strengthen the system but the PM will have no right to dictate things. He can give suggestions. The decisions taken by the PSC’s Board will be binding.

The IPC will be relieved of a huge burden of also handling sports. I must say that when stakeholders will put their heads together they can further modify and improve this model.

Provinces, after devolution, have more sports budget and they can smartly manage to back sports development at the elite level also.

Meanwhile, in the current scenario lack of budget with the PSB has compelled federations to opt for new ways and means to ensure they can run their sports effectively. Some of the federations want to enter into public-private partnership deals with the government. This is a good idea, no doubt. This will help federations to generate their own revenues which will be spent on sports development.

Federations want that the PSB should hand over the infrastructure at the Pakistan Sports Complex, Islamabad, to the federations. The federations will develop them and generate revenues, a part of which will be given to the PSB. Some will be spent on athletes and their participation in international circuit. There is no harm in this. The IPC minister Dr Fehmida Mirza should sit with these federations and chalk out a plan to implement the idea which is innovative and could turn out to be more productive.

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