ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) Director General Akhtar Ganjera has confirmed that government has released Rs 70.54 million grant, which will be distributed among the medallists of the 12th South Asian Games and Asian Beach Games.
Talking to The Nation on Thursday, Ganjera said: “We will organise a special ceremony to honour the athletes with cash incentives on August 24 here at the PSB and not only athletes, coaches, sports journalists but all those, who are associated with sports and work for making the day possible for Pakistan, will be part of the ceremony. Inter Provincial Coordination (IPC) minister Riaz Pirzada will preside over the ceremony. We will invite sports directorates of Army, Navy and Wapda and other directorates of departments working for the promotion of sports and providing bread and butter to athletes and coaches.”
Ganjera said that the funds were released due to special efforts made by the IPC minister and it was his personal interest and desire to honour all those, who had played out their hearts and won laurels for the country and made the entire nation proud. “We are highly fortunate to have such sports-loving personality, who is taking extra care of athletes and coaches. He has given me strict directives to ensure special diet, arrange best available facilities and provide athletes and coaches the best possible comfort, so that they may focus on giving their 100 percent.”
Ganjera said the athletes, who had won gold medals in both the games, would get Rs 1 million each while silver medallist to get Rs 0.5 million and bronze medallists Rs 250,000 each. “My doors are always open for the athletes and coaches and we will try to provide them whatever we can do in our set limitations. It has been decided in principle to make befitting arrangements for athletes to show them how much we care for them and their efforts are not gone without noticed.”
He said the camps are in full swing at the PSB and he had given directives to all the affiliated federations to send plans for starting training camps, as not only Vth Asian Indoor Games are just round the corner, but also other high-profile tournaments are approaching fast. “The athletes and coaches are satisfied with the facilities being provided by us that’s why they love to train at Islamabad. The up-gradation and maintenance work of different facilities is underway on war footings, as a lot of work was pending for last few months.”
When asked about status of 2nd Quaid-e-Azam Inter-Provincial Games, Ganjera said: “As all know, the Quaid-e-Azam Games was my brain child and I would love to conduct them and we have made all the arrangements in this regard. Unfortunately, the games were postponed due to certain reasons. If the IPC minister orders me to conduct the games in September, October or even in November, we are ready to conduct in just one-month notice time.
“The games are highly important for our youth and also give message of love, peace, harmony and brotherhood among the provinces. I am hopeful that we will be able to detect more raw talent through games. We had sent athletes, who were picked during first edition of Quaid-e-Azam Games, for training in China and we will send more athletes to other countries as well for high-level training,” Ganjera concluded.