LAHORE – Pakistan Kushti Federation (PKF) newly elected president Col (retd) Asif Dar has said that the purpose behind forming the federation is the national cause to save the game from further decline and to promote cultural wrestling. “The PKF’s basic aim was to promote cultural wrestling i.e. Akhara, Mal/Gaze and Malakhra through training camps and competitions for the entertainment of wrestling and sports lovers and at the same time, providing potential wrestlers to Pakistan Wrestling Federation (PWF) for Olympic style competitions and raising funds through gate money, sponsorship and government grants for the welfare of our legends,” Dar said this in his first ever interview with TheNation after becoming the PKF president.
He said that the PKF was also formed to introduce and promote fair sports culture in Pakistan to create awareness among masses and eliminate ills existing in Pakistan sports bodies starting from club to Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) level.  “It is because of these ills that our performance at international competitions has gone so pathetic that for the last four Olympic Games, Pakistan has returned without a single medal. Majority of our players and officials are going to London Olympics this year on the crutches of wild cards. Thus, their hope of winning any medal is quite bleak. However, if Pakistan’s sports talent is groomed honestly and sincerely, our chances of winning medals at Rio de Janero Olympics in 2016 will brighten. We have started with this aim and by the grace of Allah, we will march on with the support of sincere and competent people towards our goal,” said Dar who himself has won couple of medals at international level in wrestling.
Under the PKF flag, all the technical matters would be handled by technical persons whereas non-technical officials would provide an administrative support, he added.
“Our wrestlers have been giving such a remarkable performances but nobody took any measure to look after them. This is the reason that our heroes, who have left us, left the world in pain and those who are alive are living isolated life,” he said and added: “As most of the wrestlers are simple and uneducated, control of wrestling has always remained in the hands of non technical officials who instead of looking after the interest of our heroes have been enjoying foreign tour and availing perks. This tendency has damaged our wrestlers and wrestling very badly, bringing down our performance at international level to rock bottom.”
Talking about kushti culture and craze in Pakistan, the PKF president said: “In Pakistan, Akhara wrestling is popular in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Mal/Ghaze in Balochistan and Malakhra in Sindh. As technique of Akhara wrestling is quite similar to Olympic Freestyle wrestling, our Akhara wrestlers have won hundreds of titles and medals at international level.”
Lauding the subcontinent and Pakistan wrestlers achievements, Dar said: “The most prominent titles won by our wrestlers are Gama Pehalwan’s world title in 1910 at London and Rasheed Anwar’s first medal at the Commonwealth Games in London in 1934 for subcontinent. Din Mohammad’s first gold medal for Pakistan in any sport won at Manila in 1954, record performance of our wrestlers at Perth in 1962 by winning seven gold and one silver out of possible eight medals while in 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, wrestler Azhar Hussain and M Inam were the sole gold medal winners from the Pakistani contingent. So we can say that Pakistani players are naturally talented in this field.”  Commenting about Indians progress in this field of kushti and wrestling, he stated: “Presently Indians are slightly ahead of us in the field of wrestling and kushti due to better technical handling and commitment to the game. Hence they can be potential medal winner in the London Olympic whereas Pakistani wrestlers have failed to qualify for the coming mega event like all other games except hockey.”
“I and my team will just focus on promotion of sports and cooperating with other sports bodies, we will strive hard to bring laurels for Pakistan by making the players ready to earn good name and fame for the country,” Dar concluded.