Menace of doping threatening Pakistan sports

KARACHI: A perfect storm in brewing in Pakistan sports. More and more of the country’s athletes are using banned, performance-enhancing substances and the concerned authorities are unable to do anything about it.
Within the last two months, at least ten of the country’s male and female athletes have failed dope tests. Such is the state of the country’s athletics that the concerned authorities decided against participating in the athletics events of the recently-concluded Commonwealth Games in New Delhi for the fear that some of the team members might test positive for drugs.
And it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
‘The News’ has learnt through reliable sources that the use of banned drugs is rife in many other sports in Pakistan as athletes and coaches are either unaware of the dangers of using such substances or aren’t really concerned about being caught.
The case of leading national athletes Sadaf Siddiqui, and Javaria Hasan is still pretty fresh. The duo failed dope teats conducted during national trials ahead of the Commonwealth Games.
They were banned by the Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) along with several other athletes for the same crime.
Amongst the eight athletes banned last August were Muhammad Imran of Army, a national javelin throw champion, and Sumera Zahoor of Pakistan Steel, who took part in the 2004 Sydney Olympics. The other athletes were Rozina Shafqat, Nadia Nazir, Shagufta Noreen, Zara Razzak, Mohammad Waseem and Asif Javed.
This correspondent carried out an investigation into how much the menace has spread among the country’s sports community and how many disciplines have been affected.
Sources told ‘The News’ that the problem has reached an alarming point and sooner, rather than later, it would surface as one of the biggest sports scandals in the country.
Imran Khan, a reputed and qualified national athletics coach, disclosed that a majority of our athletes including weightlifters and

bodybuilders competing in district, provincial and national level competitions are taking anabolic steroids to improve their performances so that they can earn departmental promotions.
A former decathlon champion, Imran is of the view that in a number of cases, athletes using drugs are innocent and the responsibility of curbing this menace lies on their respective federations, the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) and the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA).
Imran, who is one of three Pakistani coaches with a level five degree in athletics coaching from Singapore, said that some coaches use performance-enhancing drugs without consulting any doctors. “Due to the lack of education, the athletes get involved in using of the anabolic substances and steroids and when caught, face severe punishments,” he said. “Since most of them come from rural areas, they are terribly unaware of the hazards of doping.
“During any national athletics events, there are dozens of empty packets of these substances in the athletes’ rooms.”
Imran said that it is high time that PSB and POA take notice of this and start an awareness campaign through workshops, meetings and other means.
“You cannot curb this menace by handing bans. What you need is a comprehensive campaign to minimise it,” he said. “Athletes and coaches need to be informed that what is a banned substance and what is not.”
He observed that although the practice of using the drugs has been on the rise for the past several years, the issue was not raised as the media usually focusses on the issues related to cricket and hockey.
Meanwhile, a group of banned athletes who are going through their two-year bans alleged that the PSB is responsible of the entire crisis as they never told the athletes that those substances were banned.
While talking to this correspondent on the condition of anonymity, a female athlete said that in May 2010, PSB held a workshop in Islamabad on the usage of the substances amongst athletes and Dr. Waqar, who works for PSB and WADA, delivered a lecture.
However, not a single athlete was invited to attend the seminar which was attended by officials of PSB.
In another twist to the story, a group of athletes who are not banned said on the condition of anonymity that if at least 40 athletes are found involved in the usage of performance-enhancing drugs in a period of two years, WADA establishes its office in that country and hence, the PSB keeping in view its personal benefits, declared 10 athletes as dope cheats in just two months.