ISLAMABAD - No cash awards as Inter Provincial Coordination (IPC) minister honoured Pakistan ju-jitsu team at a reception hosted at Pakistan Sports Complex on Thursday.

Pakistan team won six medals in Asian Beach Games and the IPC minister held a reception in their honour. It was highly mismanaged event as firstly, the minister was supposed to honour the team at 12:30pm, but after more than one hour delay and kept the journalists waiting for almost two hours, Pirzada finally arrived along with PSB Director General Akhtar Nawaz Ganjera and other PSB officials.

The minister lauded medal-winning athletes and presented bouquets to all the participants of the Games. Addressing the players and coaches, the minister said: “The government is investing heavily in sports. It is good omen that now Pakistani athletes have started performing well and winning medals in the international events.” He ordered the PSB DG to ensure athletes should be sent for international events at least four days prior to start of the event to give them time to adjust.

When this scribe wanted to know whether athletes, who played out their hearts and win medals for Pakistan, will be awarded with cash incentives or only flowers were enough for them, the minister replied: “I will send a summary in this regard to Prime Minister.”

To avoid further questions, the minister left the scene saying he had some important commitments to do, but surprisingly, the minister kept sitting in his office located in the PSB for more than an hour. If the minister was not in a mood to talk on genuine issues and just wanted to make tall claims then why the journalists were invited.

If the medal-winning athletes are given such rash and unacceptable treatment, then how on earth is it possible to expect over-the-moon performances and results from them? It is high time when instead of making tall claims and self-praise, the IPC minister must announce healthy cash awards for not only medal-winning athletes but also for coaches.