Adviser to Chief Minister Punjab on Sports and Youth Affairs Wahab Riaz inaugurated Under-16 Talent Hunt Programme Inter-Division Archery and Table Tennis Championship at a grand opening ceremony at Nishtar Park Sports Complex (NPSC) Gymnasium Hall on Monday.
Secretary Sports and Youth Affairs Punjab Raja Jahangir Anwar and Director General Sports Punjab Dr Asif Tufail were guests of honour on this occasion.
Director Sports Yasmeen Akhtar, Director Youth Affairs Rana Nadeem Anjum, Deputy Director Ataur Rahman, Deputy Director Chand Perveen, Deputy Director Zahoor Ahmed, Administrator NPSC Gymnasium Hall Mustfa Shah, all divisional sports officer of the province, District Sports Officer Lahore Tanveer Shah, Assistant Directors Sajid Ali, M Waseem, provincial coach Shaista Qaiser, Zareena Waqar and Chief Sports Consultant Haffez Bhatti were also present on this occasion.
It is worth mentioning that Sports Board Punjab is oagansing Under-16 Talent Hunt Programme Inter-Division Archery and Table Tennis Championship under Annual Sports Calendar Programme from January 1 to 5, 2024 in which over 200 male and female players and officials are participating.
All the participating U-16 divisional archery and table tennis teams and their officials were introduced to the Adviser to Chief Minister Punjab on Sports and Youth Affairs Wahab Riaz, Secretary Sports Punjab Raja Jahangir Anwar and DG Sports Punjab Dr Asif Tufail on this occasion.
Adviser to Chief Minister Punjab on Sports and Youth Affairs Wahab Riaz, Secretary Sports Punjab Raja Jahangir Anwar and Director General Sports Punjab Dr Asif Tufail exchanged souvenirs at the opening ceremony.
Talking to media at the mega inaugural ceremony, Adviser to Chief Minister Punjab on Sports and Youth Affairs Wahab Riaz said that the consultation was underway among top sports hierarchy of the province for the last few months to devise a mechanism for the promotion of sports at grassroots level. “It was felt that a proper infrastructure is there in the province but we need to incline young players to utilise the said infrastructure properly,” he added.
Adviser to Chief Minister Punjab on Sports and Youth Affairs Wahab Riaz said that under the newly-devised mechanism, U-16 teams will be selected from all nine divisions and the young players will be on board not for specific events but for the whole year. “Sports Board Punjab will organize camps and sports competitions of the selected players and give them sufficient incentives to motivate them”.
Elaborating the system, Adviser to Chief Minister Punjab on Sports and Youth Affairs Wahab Riaz said that Sports Board Punjab’s selection committee will select the top performing players from these young players and these selected players will be given a stipend of Rs 10,000 each per month for one year.
He said that the competitions of six games are being organized in the upcoming Winter Games to be started from January 14. “In total, 18 sports disciplines have been selected in which Sports Board Punjab will form its own teams. In the first phase, we are working on six games - athletics, badminton, football, hockey, volleyball and tennis. 90 players from these six games will be awarded stipends of Rs 70,000, Rs 50,000 and Rs 30,000 per month for one year respectively,” he explained.
Adviser to Chief Minister Punjab on Sports and Youth Affairs Wahab Riaz said that a compact plan is being finalized for future working according to which every talented player will have crystal clear information about the details and schedule of upcoming sports events for which they can plan and prepare accordingly.
In his address, Secretary Sports and Youth Affairs Punjab Raja Jahangir Anwar said that enough work has been done on infrastructure across the province. “Now we will focus on the welfare of athletes, holding competitive sports events and tracing highly talented athletes from different sports disciplines”.
Secretary Sports Punjab Raja Jahangir Anwar further said that best and effective sports projects are being prepared in the province. “Punjab has plenty of sports talent. We are upbeat that several leading athletes from this event will be able to play bigger sports events like world cup and Olympics in future,” he added.
Director General Sports Punjab Dr Asif Tufail on this occasion said that an Annual Sports Calendar has been prepared with a hard work of six months for the first time in the history of the province. “The Annual Sports Calendar will help a lot in the promotion of sports at grassroots level. We are quite confident to find several highly talented athletes from this event”.
Director General Sports Punjab Dr Asif Tufail further said that a compact programme has been constituted for the training and grooming of young talented athletes. “Under this sports development programme, Punjab’s teams will be formed in the selected sports disciplines and the scholarships will be given to top performing athletes”. He urged the young athletes to work hard and win laurels for their respective teams in this grand event.