ISLAMABAD: Pakistan sports, athletes, infrastructure’s development and athletes development programmes suffered yet another blow as the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) surrendered a whopping amount of Rs380 million to the Finance Division for the fiscal year 2023-24 due to incompetent sports handlers or the possible involvement of politics in the board’s affairs.
‘The News’ has learnt that due to gross mismanagement, chop and change policies of the high-ups and above all the dirty politics in the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC)/PSB working in the recent past resulted in non-utilization of funds.
According to the reports emerging from the ministry, it was a sort of catch-22 situation during month of June when neither Adhoc Director General Ch Zahoor nor newly-appointed Yasir Peerzada was ready to sanction/approve the amount.
Peerzada who took over the PSB as director general on June 22 refused to sanction or clear the backlog due to what he said was spent by administrators who were there prior to his appointment. Even the Adhoc DG left the charge a few days early without sanctioning the documents, resulting in surrendering the amount.
Sports has always been on the receiving end with heavy amounts meant for games or infrastructure development going to waste. “If you surrender a heavy amount of Rs380 million you are sending a bad message to the Finance Division. The next time they would be more careful in sanctioning the development and non-development budget with the view that the PSB officials do not have the capacity or requirement to spend the amount,” one of the officials, when contacted, said.
Besides coming harsh on the development projects, the sports federations were also deprived of their due share. The sports non-development fund is mainly meant for the sports federations and athletes’ uplift and promotion, surrendering the amount means denying them the opportunity to progress and improve.
“Surrendering any amount meant for promotion of sports is a cruelty to the athletes. Federations have a genuine right to get the required grants. If some or all sports federations are denied the opportunity, it is a cruel act. The pending amount should have been distributed among the federations, especially among those who really deserve the grant.”
‘The News’ when approached a few federations’ officials to know whether they got the required funding from the government/PSB at the end of financial year, their straight answer was no. “It is unjust to the federations. Instead of surrendering a huge amount, sports federations should have been given the grants at the end of the financial year,” he said.
The official added that recently, the PSB’s Governing Board has changed the laid down criteria. “Majority of the federations were fulfilling that criteria but even yet they received nothing.” All the efforts to contact Nadeem Irshad Kayani on telephone and through WhatsApp went fruitless.
