ISLAMABAD - Islamabad Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) newly-elected vice president M Ashfaq Chattha announced to reactivate ICCI sports committee within a few days.
In an interview with The Nation, Ashfaq said: “Almighty has given so much to business community of the Federal capital, so it is our duty to take good care of deserving ones and the best way of doing so is to provide maximum facilities to athletes of twin cities.”
“For the last year or so, the sports committee was not announced but now I have discussed this issue with the president and he not only supported the idea but also promised his all-out help in this regard. The committee will most likely to be announced early next month, which will include the likes of former chairman Saeed Ahmed Bhatti, Nasir Mehmood Ch, Naveed Malik, Akhunzada Faheem, Nisar Ahmed Mirza, Sheikh Abdul Waheed, as they had previously done wonders and provided relief to deserving athletes the much-needed financial support. We will not only provide financial assistance to deserving sports persons but also try to provide them with jobs and other benefits,” he added.
Ashfaq said: “We will organise annual cricket festival match next month and I have also planned to conduct All-Pakistan Chambers Cricket Tournament in December this year or early next year. We will also invite sports personalities, who had won laurels for the country at international level. We will also invite men's hockey team, who performed exceptionally well in the recently-concluded Asian Games and also extend invitation to female cricket team, which won gold medal in Asian Games. We have planned to invite both teams after their proposed meeting with the Prime Minister.”
“We have also planned to organise family gala involving families of diplomats, traders, media persons and government officials. Talks in this regard are underway so hopefully, we will be able to arrange a suitable cricket venue to conduct the proposed event, while dates and other things will be announced later,” he said.
“It is quite disturbing to watch pathetic condition of Karachi Company cricket ground, which is in complete shambles due to sheer negligence of the CDA. In the past, we requested CDA to allocate this venue to the ICCI, as we could take good care of the venue but no heed was paid. It is once again my request to CDA chairman to either allocate the ground to ICCI or allocate separate piece of land to us where we may construct cricket ground with our own resources. It is my promise the ground will be state-of-the-art, and will have international level facilities,” he added. “We will play an exhibition cricket match with Rawalpindi Islamabad Sports Journalists Association (RISJA) next month in a befitting manner. We will also conduct snooker, table tennis, badminton and tennis matches, where handsome prizes will be on offer. We want to take on board depressed youth and engage them into healthy sporting activities,” Ashfaq concluded.