AFZAL JAVED / DNA
ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) has decided to summon Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Fehmida Mirza and President of Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) on the issue of hosting upcoming South Asian Federations (SAF) Games to be held in Pakistan in March 2023.
The senate committee met here on Friday at Parliament House under the chairmanship of Senator Mian Raza Rabbani while in which Senator Irfan ul Haq Siddiqui, Senator Faisal Javed, Senator Rana Maqbool Ahmed, Senator Mushtaq Ahmed, Federal Secretary Inter-Provincial Coordination Mohsin Mushtaq Chandana and other officials were also attended the meeting.
“Senator Irfan ul Haq Siddiqui raised the important issue of hosting and organizing the upcoming edition of SAF Games in Pakistan next year and asked from ministry officials whether SAF Games will be organize by the Ministry of IPC or Pakistan Olympic Association?”, adding that we don’t want to be a spectacle of Pakistan in the world as it is globally practice that only Olympic Associations are conducting the international games.
The other members of committee also shown their concerns on the important issue asked from ministry that who has the authority to host and conduct SAF Games in Pakistan either ministry having mandate to organize the games at international level?
Secretary IPC Mohsin chandana informed the committee that federal government sanction the amount of Rs. 9 Billion for organizing the SAF games and the international event will be held by government in collaboration with Pakistan Olympic Association. He added that steering committee of SAF Games headed by federal minister Asad Umar could not be held due to unavailability of IPC Minister Fehmida Mirza and it will be held soon.
The house decided to convene a special meeting of the committee and summoning the Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Fehmida Mirza and President of Pakistan Olympic Association to address the concerns of committee members on upcoming SAF games 2023 to be hosted by Pakistan as well as venue of the SAF Games has been decided so far or not.
The committee secretariat will also carry out a research as to what is the practice in other countries where such international events are held whether they are under the auspices of the Olympics Association or any other Sports Body functioning within that country.
On the matter regarding working, function, funding received and its utilization to all Federal Sports Organizations the committee decided to reconstitute a Sub-Committee under the convener ship of Senator Irfan ul Haq Siddiqui with the same mandate to probe the affairs of the Sports Organizations on account of the fact that previously Pakistan Sports Board had failed to submit the timely responses of the Sports Organizations before the sub-committee.
The Committee was perturbed that its directions given in the last meeting regarding appointment of a grade 12 official on the post of Director, Pakistan Sports Board, Karachi, have still not been carried out. The committee directs the secretary IPC to appoint the equivalent grade officer within one week on acting basis either from the Ministry or from the Pakistan Sports Board.
During the meeting, it is come into the notice of the committee that a number of positions are lying vacant in Pakistan Sports Board, therefore the Committee directed that a list of such positions and the dates from which such vacancies have occurred along with the steps taken so far to fill the said vacancies be provided to the Committee before the next meeting.
The Committee took note of the fact that Pakistan Cricket Board has provided a rough sketch of the terms and conditions on which the new tour of the New Zealand team to Pakistan has been negotiated. The PCB CEO is directed to appear before the Committee in its next meeting with details of the terms and condition of the said tour of New Zealand as well as to provide the details of the tours of other cricket playing countries for the next three years.
While briefing the committee on the budgetary proposal, the Secretary IPC Mohsin Chandana said that the proposed PSDP for FY 2022-23 is Rs.7099.423 million having 32 schemes. According to the budgetary information submitted by the ministry Rs. 2593.627 million allocated for 10 ongoing schemes and Rs. 3035.796 million allocated for 11 new proposed schemes. The detailed discussion on the budgetary proposal was deferred due to the non-availability of the Minister IPC.
During the meeting the issue of letter written by Pakistan Olympics Association to the International Olympics Committee also discussed and committee also directed the Pakistan Olympics Association to provide a copy of letter to the Standing Committee within ten days.
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