Sports

President Pakistan Olympics Association briefs Senate Committee

ISLAMABAD, Feb 18 (SABAH): A meeting of Senate Standing Committee on Inter-Provincial Coordination was held under the Chairmanship of Senator Mian Raza Rabbani here at Parliament House on Friday.

At the outset, Secretary of Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) informed the Committee that the recommendations made by the committee in its Meeting held on 14th January, 2022 have been adopted.

Furthermore, President of Pakistan Olympics Association (POA) Syed Arif Hasan briefed the Committee about the working, functions and overall performance of POA in last fifteen years. However, Chairman Committee observed that POA is only providing logistics support and works as mailbox and has nothing to do with the selection of athletes and development of sports”. President of POA told the Committee that our work is only to provide accreditation to Athletes.

Discussing Calling Attention notice moved by Senators Mushtaq Ahmad Khan and Mohsin Aziz regarding letter the POA wrote to International Olympics Committee in August 2021. 

Chairman Committee Mian Raza Rabbani lamented the President of POA that the tone and tenor of letter is not appropriate and infact has sent a bad message internationally. 

Secretary of IPC apprised the Committee that copy of the letter had not been given to Ministry. However, President of POA explained to the Committee that this letter was written in the fear of being repeated the episode of 2012, when our building and record were taken over. 

In a concluding statement, Chairman Committee said that the matter of letter remains open because the Committee is not satisfied with justification provided by POA. The matter was deferred by the Committee for next meeting, since the movers of the Calling Attention notice were not present.

The Meeting was attended by Senator Gurdeep Singh, Senator Jam Mahtab Hussain Dahar,Senator  Rana Maqbool Ahmad, senator Irfan-ul-Haq Siddique, Secretary IPC, DG Pakistan Selection Board, President of Pakistan Olympics Association (POA) and other senior officers of POA as well.