SAF Games winners await prizes

KARACHI: Pakistan’s medal-winning Asian Games athletes have given up hope of receiving the Rs200,000 grant that was promised by the government. Nineteen athletes from Pakistan won gold medals in several sports during the event in Dhaka and, as a result, were promised the amount by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani.

“The prime minister promised us the amount for bagging gold medals,” bantam-weight boxing champion Naimatullah told The Express Tribune. “I tried to ask the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) officials a few times but never got any response. This probably means that I’m never going to get the money.”

Similarly, the squash team and singles champion Amir Atlas echoed Naimatullah’s view, saying that the prime minister had told him that he will get Rs400,00 for winning two gold medals but he never heard from the officials after a banquet in February.

“We were looking for the budget to be announced,” said the Ministry of Sports spokesperson Faiq Ali Chachar.

“Now it’s in the hands of the finance ministry. We’ve asked them to issue Rs350 million for the gold medallists but we were told that we have to wait for the budget.”

However, a PSB official said that it was unlikely the promised amounts would be delivered to the athletes.

“It’s obvious that these athletes will not get the money,” the official said. “The government had also promised the 2006 SAF winners an amount but they never received it. So I’m sure the same will happen again.”

Published in the Express Tribune, June 2010.