ISLAMABAD-Director General Sports Board KP Junaid Khan has awarded Rs 100,000 each to Abbas Zeb and Hamza Khan for winning Asian Junior titles held in India recently.

Talking to The Nation, Junaid, who is well-known for his passion for sports, said: “The title victories of Pakistani youngsters have me a lot of pleasure and motivated me to keep on honoring the young talent. When I saw brilliant kids of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa performing at national and international and levels, the KP government had set a policy some three years back, in which we award cash prizes of Rs 100,000 each to the international medal winners and awarded Rs 70,000 cash prize each to the national champions.

“We also cover their studies and awarded them cash scholarships of worth Rs 1000 to Rs 5,000 monthly. We also sponsored our brilliant kids, who don’t have resources to take part in international events as we provided them up to Rs 200,000 in shape of return tickets and TA/DAs,” he added.

He said ever since he had taken over the charge, he had made up his mind not sit but to help youth of the province. “For the last three years, regional U-23 games are being held and we are providing around Rs 25 million annually to different sports. We have also enough budget to help any given association, who wants to conduct sporting events up to Rs 200,000, while we also have a budget of around Rs 30 million annually, in which we cover sports scholarships.”

Junaid said they are also conducting indigenous games in different far-flung areas of the province. “I personally ensure my presence during the indigenous games and we ensure 25 events for males and 18 events for females in the regional U-23 games. We also offer federations and associations to recommend the names of athletes, who are deserving and can’t afford expenditures required to take part in international events. We just want to see their invitation, covering letter from the federation or association and without any delay, we will provide the athlete every possible help.

“I have passed on directives to all the provincial associations and sports bodies to conduct sports events regularly and we will ensure every help that we can provide to them, as youth of this particular province is naturally well-built and if provided with facilities, training and international exposure, they are bound to excel.

“We have also extended offers to all the sports associations to recommend the names of the players, whom they want us to provide facilities, coaches and even monthly stipends. My doors are always open for athletes, coaches and all those, who want to help the youth of this province. I will do whatever I can to help them in the best possible manner,” Juniad concluded.

PESHAWAR: Director General Sports Board KP Junaid Khan awarding cash prizes to Hamza Khan and Abbas Zeb.