Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Dr Fehmida Mirza on Wednesday sought immediate resignation of Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) President retired Lt Gen (r) Arif Hasan due to persistent poor performance of national athletes.
The minister was responding to a calling attention notice of Senators Mohsin Aziz and Mushtaq Ahmed who drew the attention of the minister towards the continuous poor performance of Pakistani athletes at the Olympics for more than three decades.
Dr Fehmida said the previous governments had also attempted to remove the POA chief from the post he has held onto since 2004 but could not succeed, adding that, “the POA president considers himself exempted from answering anyone”.
The minister informed the house that the government was in process of finalising a fresh sports policy that would entail the formation of a regulatory regime. She said that as per international practice, the matters pertaining to the fundamental guidelines of the sports rested with the federal government but in Pakistan, the matter was handed over to the provinces.
Dr Fehmida said the federal government was waiting for input from the provincial governments as well as other stakeholders to move ahead with the new policy. "We believe that there should be strong coordination among federal and provincial governments on sports-related issues," the minister said.
This is the second time that the minister has asked the POA chief to step down over the “dismal” performance of Pakistan’s athletes in international events. In August, the government demanded Arif Hasan to resign from the post. However, hitting back at the government, the POA chief claimed the regulatory body was performing the role assigned by its constitution.
‘US Senate bill regrettable’
Reacting to the bill moved in the US Senate that sought an assessment of Pakistan's alleged role in Afghanistan, Senator Sherry Rehman called for holding an urgent session on the matter and deplored the move as "regrettable".
Read More: Power of sports to unite
Expressing concerns over the motives behind the bill, she said that it was now being clearly signalled to the country that economic allies of China would be subjected to such targets and tactics.
On Monday, twenty-two US senators moved a bill in the Senate which called for assessing Pakistan’s alleged role in Afghanistan before and after the fall of Kabul and in the Taliban offensive in Panjshir Valley.
Sherry Rehman called for an immediate session to deliberate upon the matter and sounded alarm that Pakistan was being targeted. “Except Pakistan, joint meetings are being held to discuss evolving situation in Afghanistan all over the world,” the PPP leader said, stressing that the first step of foreign policy was national unity.
Censuring Prime Minister Imran Khan’s “flawed foreign policy”, Sherry said the government was ignoring the constitution and parliament by refusing to take all stakeholders on board before going ahead with sensitive decisions such as granting TTP amnesty.
“Doing this is a very complicated matter given that sanctions have already been imposed on Pakistan,” she added.
Significant increase in street crimes
During the session, the interior ministry raised alarm that a significant increase in street crimes has been witnessed in Islamabad.
According to the data shared by the ministry, the ratio of street crimes surged in 2021 as compared to 2020.
Sharing the details, the ministry said that this year alone there have been 19 incidents of purse snatching; 58 incidents of money lifting; 73 incidents of mobile and cash theft; 19 incidents of car snatching and 51 incidents of motorcycle snatching.
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