That the federal government felt it was necessary to publicly demand the resignation of Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) President Lt Gen (retd) Arif Hasan is either a result of its frustration over how badly the country did at the games over the last few weeks or it has a plan to revive and reform the structure of player development. Because the matter could have been dealt with much more delicately and privately, the latter seems more unlikely. To begin with, the POA is not responsible for player development; rather its mission is to protect and promote the Olympic charter, run anti-doping campaigns and coordinate with the International Olympic Committee. The Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) is in fact the primary body whose function is to prepare and develop athletes in terms of fitness and competitive readiness according to international standards. It is therefore quite rich that Dr Fehmida Mirza, president of the PSB, is blaming General Arif for ‘all that is wrong with sports in the country’ and criticizing him for being at the post for 17 years, getting reelected multiple times, when in fact the POA presidency is an honorary position and is commonly a lifetime appointment; the last president, Syed Wajid Ali, having served for 26 years.
Although the subject of sports was devolved to provinces under the 18th Amendment, there is no national sports policy. There also seems to be no coordination between the center and provinces either on this matter, despite the PTI having governments in Punjab, KP, Balochistan and most recently GB and AJK. This also happens to be Dr Mirza’s domain, who apart from heading the PSB is also the federal minister for inter-provincial coordination. What is more, the PSB this year surrendered an unutilized amount of Rs 440 million to the Finance Division prior to the budget, money that would have been given as grants to sporting federations.
If the PTI’s best strategy to improve the standard of sports in the country is to publicly humiliate a person, who is for the most part blameless for the embarrassment faced at the Olympics, into resigning, there is little hope for any medals at international games for Pakistan. No amount of buck passing will help resolve the systemic issues that exist within the national sporting system. A comprehensive and sufficiently funded national sports uplift programme run by competent professionals is a good starting point to eventually start churning out competitive, talented and motivated athletes.
