Sports Department and Directorate of Sports and Youth Affairs, Punjab celebrated the Olympic Day by arranging a grand Webinar on the topic of ‘Olympism & Role of Sports Department in the promotion of Sports in Punjab’ on June 23, 2020, Tuesday.
Secretary Youth Affairs, Sports, Archaeology and Tourism Punjab Ehsan Bhutta, Secretary Pakistan Olympic Association Khalid Mehmood, President Punjab Olympics Association Amir Jan, President Pakistan Rugby Federation Arif Saeed, Director Admin Javed Chohan, Director Sports Hafeez Bhatti, Olympian swimmer Miss Kiran Khan), top medal-winning wrestler Inam Butt, all DSOs and TSOs participated in the largely attended Webinar. POA Project Coordinator Miss Adda Jaffery was the moderator at the webinar.
All participants gave good suggestions for improving Sports infrastructure, sponsorship, capacity building, better coordination between Sports Department and associations/federations. They also lauded the endeavours of Sports Department and Directorate of Sports and Youth Affairs, Punjab for organising the webinar on this occasion.
Secretary Youth Affairs, Sports, Archaeology and Tourism Punjab Ehsan Bhutta welcomed all the participants and highlighted the efforts of Sports Department & Directorate in promotion of sports across the Punjab province. He assured Pakistan and Punjab Olympic Associations of all-out support for promotion of sports in the country.
Secretary Youth Affairs, Sports Punjab Ehsan Bhutta said Pakistan athletes have won several medals in Asian and South Asian Games level but we need to do extra hard work to clinch medals in Olympic Games. “For this purpose we are ready to collaborate with Pakistan and Punjab Olympic Associations, sports federations and associations.
He said: “We organized Kabbadi World Cup, Punjab Games and several other events quite successfully in the past but unfortunately Covid-19 thwarted our progress. Pakistan has a respectable status in world sports and our all stakeholders need to put up collective efforts for the growth of true sports culture in the country”.
Secretary Youth Affairs, Sports Punjab Ehsan Bhutta said: “We believe in continuous hard work for success that’s why even in the present scenario of Covid-19 we did not let our officers free and engaged them in Online Training Proramme”.
Addressing the webinar President Punjab Olympic Association Amir Jan said it’s nice to see all sports stakeholders on one platform to commemorate the Olympic Day. “Olympic Day is a message of peace, love without any discrimination. As we see athletes from around the world compete with each other in Olympic Games irrespective of their nationality and colour etc. We need to pass this legacy to future generations”.
President Punjab Olympic Association Amir Jan also highlighted the flaws of Pakistan's sports system. “Now it’s long time, we did not win a medal in Olympic Games. We need to rectify all the defects in our national sports system. We need to take all sports federations and associations on board if we want to script some encouraging results in future international sports events”.
Secretary Pakistan Olympic Association Khalid Mehmood congratulated the Sports Department and Directorate of Sports and Youth Affairs, Punjab for organising a grand Webinar to mark the Olympic Day. He threw light on the importance of Olympic Day saying that people of all walks of life used to take part in Olympic Day celebrations but unfortunately this year we are confined to celebrate this great occasion through online webinars and activities.
Secretary Pakistan Olympic Association Khalid Mehmood informed that tennis star Aisam-ul-Haq represented Pakistan through a live session at the official instagram account of the Olympics along with 23 athletes and Olympians from around the world to celebrate the Olympic Day. “IOC appreciated Aisam-ul-Haq’s performance in the live session”.
Answering a question, Secretary Pakistan Olympic Association Khalid Mehmood said South Asian Games have been awarded to Pakistan and we intend to hold these games in Lahore in early 2022. “We also want to organize some events in Faisalabad, Gujranwala and Sialkot to provide an opportunity for people of these cities to witness international competitions”.
Secretary Pakistan Olympic Association Khalid Mehmood also invited all sports officers of Punjab to take part in various sports, technical and administrative courses to be held under the banner of IOC.
Director Admin Javed Chohan welcomed all the participants in a grand webinar. He said that Olympic Day is a very important day and it is celebrated all over the world every year.
President Pakistan Rugby Federation Arif Saeed highlighted the role of the corporate sector for the development of sports in the country. Olympian swimmer Miss Kiran Khan) and top medal-winning wrestler Inam Butt also expressed their views in connection with Olympic Day.
At the end Secretary Youth Affairs, Sports, Archaeology and Tourism Punjab Ehsan Bhutta appreciated the efforts of Sports Directorate and Director Admn and Director Sports for organising the webinar quite smoothly in a short time. He also thanked POA for offering different courses to Punjab sports officers. “We will hold more webinars on different topics in future,” he concluded.