NA Body Lauds Pak Hockey Team's Performance In Asia Cup

The National Assembly Standing Committee on Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) Monday lauded the Pakistan Hockey teams performance in the recently concluded Asia Cup 'eld a't Bangladesh

ISLAMABAD, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Oct, 2017 ) :The National Assembly Standing Committee on Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) Monday lauded the Pakistan Hockey teams performance in the recently concluded Asia Cup 'eld a't Bangladesh.

It may be mentioned here that Pakistan outplayed South Korea by 6-3 in the 3rd-place match of Hockey Asia Cup at Dhaka's Maulana Bhashani Stadium. The NA Standing Committee on IPC met here at Pakistan sports board (PSB) under the chairmanship of Abdul Qahar Khan Wadan.

In the committee meeting, Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) Secretary Shahbaz Ahmed Sr. briefed the committee about the hardships faced by the Federation in the promotion of the game in the country.

We have requested for astro-turfs to be laid in Quetta and Peshawar, he said. Shahbaz said a national hockey center should be formed for the development of hockey. The IPC Minister Mian Riaz Hussain Pirzada said " they had won the court case against Guns & Country Club and we had planned to move tennis and hockey there." In the meeting, a briefing on National Internship Programme (NIP) was given by Hidayat Ullah, Director General NIP who informed the committee that the interns were being paid Rs 12,000 per month but the amount has been enhanced to Rs 15,000 per month.

He said as many as 50,000 interns are hired under the operations of the scheme each year. Responding to a question, he said the hiring criteria of interns is done online. He said the scheme was approved at the cost of Rs 23.594 billion for three consecutive financial years 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18.

The total cost has now been proposed to be revised upwards to Rs 26.690 billion. In the meeting, Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Federation (PBSF) co-chairman Alamgir Sheikh briefed the committee on the working of the Federation.

He said their special grant has been lessened from Rs three million to 1.5 million. He requested the IPC Minister to allot two halls to the Federation in Pakistan Sports Complex so that they can setup snooker tables for the players to train for tournaments.

He said currently seven players have been provided jobs by National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) and urged other departments to also come forward in support of the players. He also expressed reservations over the medal winning players to be provided with prize money timely.

However the IPC Minister assured all-out support to Alamgir Sheikh. A briefing was also given by Syed Habib Shah, Deputy Director General (Technical) PSB on Pakistan's participation in 2018 Asian Games.

He briefed the committee about various steps that would be taken to prepare the athletes for the games. However the committee decided to discuss the Asian Games in the next meeting. Rana Muhammad Hayat Khan, Khalid Hussain Magsi, Rana Muhammad Afzal Khan, Begum Tahira Bukhari, Sabiha Nazir, Aftab Shaban Mirani, Mahreen Razzaque Bhutto, Rafique Ahmed Jamali, Mujahid Ali, Siraj Muhammad Khan, Iqbal Muhammad Ali Khan and Engineer Mohammad Usman Badini were also present in the meeting.