LAHORE   -   Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi on Wednesday an­nounced to set up sports endow­ment fund worth Rs. 7.5 billion along with sports revolving fund of Rs 2 billion for the welfare of players. He was participating as a chief guest at the closing ceremo­ny of Central Punjab Inter-school Tournament being held at Qaddafi Stadium Lahore. The CM said that endowment fund would be spent on the welfare of players and they would be imparted training by hir­ing coaches from a foreign country and local players would be sent to a foreign country for getting train­ing. He also announced to establish stadium of an international level on the adjoining land of ring road, say­ing that funds were being provided for the construction of this stadium. He apprised that the sports centre of excellence would be set up in Faisalabad, Rawalpindi and Sialkot and these programmes and projects would be completed within one year period of time. The CM con­gratulated the players of victorious team of the tournament and also the management committee. 

Earlier, the chief minister watched the final match of Central Punjab Inter-school Tournament. Divisional Public School (DPS) Faisalabad defeated Dar-e-Arqam School Lahore by 55 runs and won the tournament. Arslan Riaz of DPS Faisalabad was declared man of the match. The CM handed over trophy and cash prize to Arslan Riaz cap­tain of the victorious team. Provin­cial Sports Minister Malik Taimoor Masood, Chief Secretary Abdullah Sumbal and Chairman PCB Rameez Raja also distributed prizes among the players. Vice Chairman Pun­jab Sports Board Malik Nadeem Abbas, former Federal Secretary and Chairman P&D Salman Ghani, former Principal Secretary to CM GM Sikandar, Secretary Sports, Secretary School Education, CCPO Lahore, DG PHA, Deputy Commis­sioners of Faisalabad, Sialkot and Lahore, DG Punjab Sports Board and other officials were also pres­ent on the occasion.

PSQCA LAUNCHES OPERATION AGAINST STEEL MILLS

Pakistan Standards & Quality Con­trol Authority (PSQCA) on Wednes­day launched an operation against illegal and unlicensed steel factories and seized tons of deformed steel bars and other products of six units. The PSQCA team also barred the mills from manufacturing products. On orders of Federal Minister for Sci­ence and Technology Agha Hassan Baloch and Secretary Ghulam Mu­hammad Memon, Director General PSQCA Zainul Abedin tasked Direc­tor Standard Development Centre Conformity Assessment Muhammad Rizwan to lead the operation against illegal steel mills.