Director General Sports Punjab Pervez Iqbal inaugurated the hockey event of Summer Games 2024 by playing a shot at National Hockey Stadium Pitch-2 here on Tuesday. The first match of the event was played between Lahore and DG Khan division teams.
Director Admin M Kaleem, Director Youth Affairs Rana Nadeem Anjum, Director Sports Yasmeen Akhtar, Olympian Kh Junaid, Deputy Director Zahoor Ahmed, Deputy Director Ataur Rehman, Chief Sports Consultant Hafeez Bhatti, all Divisional Sports Officers and a large number of hockey players and officials were also present on this occasion.
Director General Sports Punjab Pervez Iqbal had a detailed introduction with the players and officials of all teams prior to the event. The National Anthem was also presented at the inaugural ceremony. Director General Sports Punjab Pervez Iqbal also witnessed the opening match of the hockey event of Summer Games.
Addressing the inaugural ceremony, Director General Sports Punjab Pervez Iqbal welcomed all the participating teams and their officials on behalf of Punjab Sports Department. He said that the competitions of Summer Games 2024 are being organized under Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz’s vision of ‘Khailta Punjab’.
Director General Sports Punjab Pervez Iqbal said that hockey is our national game and Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has given us a task to identify true talented hockey players and after identification, the selected talented players should be groomed properly as per international hockey requirements. “In the next phase, the talented players will be provided a suitable platform to prepare themselves fully so that they can win medals for the country in top international hockey events”.
Director General Sports Punjab Pervez Iqbal informed that members of our scrutiny committee will evaluate the performance of all the participating players during every match of the event. “After the event, the players selected on the basis of their performance will be given a stipend of Rs 70,000 per month. Apart from this, they will be further groomed under the watchful eyes of expert coaches for representing the country in top international sports competitions”.
Director General Sports Punjab Pervez Iqbal said that sports is one of the top priorities of the Punjab government. “The hefty Rs two billion Sports Endowment Fund will be spent on the grooming and development of international level athletes of different games. The talented players are the main beneficiary of the Sports Endowment Fund”.
Director General Sports Punjab Pervez Iqbal further said that the main purpose of organizing Summer Games is to identify fresh talented athletes from all parts of the province. “We are quite upbeat that like volleyball, we will be able to find several talented players from the Inter-Division hockey tournament”.
Olympian Kh Junaid congratulated Director General Sports Punjab Pervez Iqbal for providing such a nice platform to talented hockey players of the province. “This kind of events play a key role in tracing true talented athletes from far flung areas of the province,” he maintained.