Games and players: Punjab Sports Festival to be held in July

CM announces setting up of sports endowment fund, sports academies.

LAHORE:

The Punjab Youth Festival will be held in July prior to the National Games that will also be held in the Punjab in September this year. Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif announced on Thursday.

He was presiding over a meeting to discuss preparations for the Punjab Sports Festival 2012 and ways to promote sports in the province.

The chief minister said that athletes from federal departments and the army would also participate in the National Games.

He said that sports academies would be set up at the district level to train the players for the Festival.

He also approved for the revival of the two per cent sports budget for the district governments, to fund the players’ training and provision of modern sports facilities.

The chief minister directed the officials concerned to establish a sports endowment fund for the welfare of the athletes. He also revealed that the provincial youth policy would be announced in the first week of May after approval from the provincial cabinet. He hoped that that policy would help bring the youth into the national mainstream and provide them with opportunities to display their talent. The Punjab Youth Festival was a part of the policy, he added.

Earlier Deputy Speaker Rana Mashhood Ahmad briefed the meeting participants about steps taken by the Sports Department to organise the Sports Festival. He said that 18,310 sports facilities have been revived in the Punjab. He said a database of veteran and retired athletes of different sports in the province has also been prepared. As many as 17,454 athletes had already been registered in the database, he said.

Sports Secretary Dr Allah Bakhsh Malik, Information Secretary Mohyuddin Wani, Abdul Jabbar Shaheen, the Punjab Horticulture Authority director general, and the district coordination officer also attended the meeting.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 13^th, 2012.