Punjab Sports Department, under the leadership of Punjab Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs Malik Faisal Ayub Khokhar, achieved sufficient success in various sports events during the past 12 months’ period. Literally, the calendar year 2025 has turned out to be very productive for Punjab Sports Department in many ways and brought ample accomplishment on multiple fronts.
During this period, Punjab Sports Department took exceptional measures and made hectic endeavours for the promotion of sports and spreading network of modern sports facilities including sports complexes, stadiums and grounds etc across the province.
Director General Sports and Youth Affairs Punjab Khizar Afzaal Chaudhry said that the year 2025 has been magnificent in which Punjab athletes excelled in several events. “Punjab Sports Department has taken multiple initiatives for the growth of sports culture and welfare of sports community during the past 12 months’ period”.
Director General Sports Punjab Khizar Afzaal Chaudhry and Youth Affairs expressed his hope that the year 2026 will prove to be more beneficial for the athletes of the province. “We are quite upbeat that our athletes will put in more hard work and offer an improved performance across all competitions in the New Year”.
Following are the notable sports events in which Punjab athletes excelled during the year 2025.
35th National Games, Karachi
Showing exceptional performance, Punjab Sports Department capped the calendar year 2025 with a historic success in the 35th National Games at Karachi in which Punjab contingent grabbed 126 medals including 16 gold medals, 38 silver and 72 bronze medals.
Punjab contingent, under the supervision of Director General Sports Punjab Khizar Afzaal Chaudhry, secured first position among all provinces and left many top departments including HEC, PAF, Police and Railways behind in the medals race after a long gap of 37 years.
After successful completion of National Games, Sports Board Punjab has announced hefty cash prizes for Punjab’s medal winners. The gold medal winning athletes will be awarded a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh each. Rs 3 lakh each will be awarded to silver medalists while Rs 2 lakh each will be given to bronze medalist athletes. The gold medal winners in the team event will be awarded a cash prize of Rs 8 lakh.
Expressing their gratitude, Punjab’s gold medal winning athletes said that Punjab Sports Department’s true professional training and top class facilities during 12-day training camp and keen involvement of Punjab Minister for Sports Malik Faisal Ayub khokhar and DG Sports Punjab Khizar Afzaal Chaudhry played a key role in Punjab contingent’s magnificent medal-winning performance in the National Games. They said that DG Sports Punjab Khizar Afzaal Chaudhry personally visited all competition venues to boost morale and confidence of Punjab athletes throughout the National Games.
Khelta Punjab Games
Chief Minister Punjab Maryam Nawaz Sharif inaugurated ‘Khelta Punjab Games’ 2025 at the Nishtar Park Sports Complex on January 30. Punjab Sports Department organized Khelta Punjab Games at Inter-Tehsil, Inter-District and Inter-Division level in which thousands of male and female athletes participated from across the province.
The Khelta Punjab Games is a premier sports event organized to discover and promote young talent. This multi-tiered competition encouraged participation from grassroots levels, providing a platform for athletes under the age of 22 to showcase their game skills.
More than 2,000 athletes from all divisions of the province featured in 15 sports disciplines during the third phase of Khelta Punjab Games. Khelta Punjab Games are the biggest games in the history of Punjab in which a total of 120,000 players were registered and lakhs of rupees were distributed as prize money among the top position holders.
Lahore Division emerged as the champion of Khelta Punjab Games with 16 gold medals followed by Faisalabad and Gujranwala divisions who clinched 12 and 11 gold medals respectively.
CM Punjab Summer Games
Punjab Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs Malik Faisal Ayub Khokhar inaugurated the Inter-Division phase of Chief Minister Punjab Summer Games at a colorful opening ceremony at Nishtar Park Sports Complex Gymnasium Hall on June 12, 2025.
More than 700 male and female players from all divisions of the province participated in Inter-Division kabaddi, volleyball, hockey and badminton competitions of Chief Minister Punjab Summer Games organized at different venues of Nishtar Park Sports Complex from June 12 to 18, 2025.
Cash prizes of Rs 75 lakh were distributed among the top position holders of the grand event. A total of 9,500 athletes appeared in the massive trials process, out of which 702 male and female athletes were selected from across the province for participation in the 3rd phase of Chief Minister Punjab Summer Games.
Summer Sports Camps
Sports Board Punjab organised Summer Sports Camps 2025 at different venues of Nishtar Park Sports Complex from June 24 to August 7, 2025.
More than 900 male and female athletes of 9 to 19 years age from Lahore participated in the training camps of 14 games including swimming, tennis, table tennis, badminton, football, hockey, taekwondo, boxing, wushu, athletics, archery, cricket, squash and yoga. Overall, more than 3,300 children took part in Summer Sports Camps across all districts of the province.
Azadi Family Fun Race
Punjab Sports Department organized Azadi Family Fun Race on August 23, 2025 at Nishtar Park Sports Complex in which over 3,400 U-14 girls, boys and women participated. The separate U-14 girls, boys and women races started from Hali Chowk, Gulberg and culminated at Punjab Stadium.
Director General Sports Punjab Khizar Afzaal Chaudhry distributed prizes among the top position holders at a largely attended closing ceremony. The top three position holders in all three categories were awarded cash prizes of Rs 50,000, 30,000 and Rs 20,000 respectively. 100 Gift Hampers were also distributed among the leading participants of the Family Fun Race.
Inter-Provincial Quaid-e-Azam Games, Islamabad
Punjab Sports Department launched the year 2025 in an ideal fashion and won Inter-Provincial Quaid-e-Azam Games convincingly at Islamabad.
Punjab contingent accumulated an aggregate of 173 medals including 79 gold medals, 52 silver and 42 bronze medals during Inter-Provincial Quaid-e-Azam Games. Punjab athletes, with 79 gold medals broke their own record of 74 medals, they achieved in the 2017 edition of Quaid-e-Azam Games.
Secretary IPC Nadeem Irshad Kiani presented the winning trophy to Director General Sports Punjab Khizar Afzaal Chaudhry at a grand closing ceremony.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa bagged the second position with 96 medals including 27 gold medals, 31 silver and 38 bronze medals while Sindh finished third with 79 medals including 16 gold medals, 28 silver and 35 bronze medals.
Blind cricket stadium handed over to PBCC
Punjab Sports Department handed over the control of Asia's first designated Blind Cricket Stadium to Chairman of Pakistan Blind Cricket Council (PBCC) Syed Sultan Shah at an impressive ceremony held at Nishtar Park Sports Complex E-Library and Youth Centre on July 21, 2025.
Provincial Minister for Sports Malik Faisal Ayub Khokhar said that the Blind Cricket Stadium at Rakh Jhedu is a gift from Punjab CM Maryam Nawaz for Blind Cricket Team. He said Pakistan is the first country in Asia to build a dedicated cricket stadium for blind cricket team.
Wrestling Complex, Mini Stadium inaugurated in Gujranwala
Punjab Minister for Sports Malik Faisal Ayub Khokhar inaugurated Wrestling Sports Complex and Mini Stadium in Gujranwala on July 31, 2025.
Punjab Minister for Sports Malik Faisal Ayub Khokhar said that sports infrastructure is being established across Punjab province under the vision of Punjab Chief Minister. The Wrestling Complex is built by the Punjab Sports Department with the cost of Rs 155 million while the cost of Mini Stadium which is equipped with several world class sports facilities, is Rs 7.5 million.
First phase of modern Squash Court inaugurated
Punjab Minister for Sports Malik Faisal Ayub Khokhar and squash legend Jahangir Khan inaugurated the first phase of country’s first ever state-of-the-art Squash Court at Nishtar Park Sports Complex on January 14, 2025.
Punjab Minister for Sports Malik Faisal Ayub Khokhar said that the Squash Complex will be completed at a cost of Rs 50 crore. He said the international squash court will be named after squash super star Jahangir Khan while the remaining courts will also be dedicated to other squash stars of the country.
Sports Endowment Fund Cheques Distributed
Punjab Minister for Sports Malik Faisal Ayub Khokhar distributed Sports Endowment Fund cheques among the 20 top performers of Inter-Provincial Quaid-e-Azam Games and other sports events at SBP E-Library in January. A cheque of Rs one million was also presented to weightlifter/powerlifter Nooh Dastgir Butt on this occasion.
Cheques of Rs 70,000 (per month for one year) were awarded to Amman Rehman, Aryaan Rehman, Bilal Maqbool, Shazana Shahid (swimming) under Platinum category.
Cheques of Rs 50,000 (per month for one year) were awarded to Aysha Waqas (swimming), Saad Shafique Ali Khan, (hockey), M Tayyab Sarwar, Zartasha Asghar, M Akmal Mehmood (taekwondo), Sujal Zafar (karate) under Gold category.
Cheques of Rs 30,000 (per month for one year) were awarded to Haseeb Masood (hockey), Tayyaba Abbas (squash), Hassan Ali (wrestling, emerging) under Silver category.
It is pertinent to mention here that the number of athletes, who are receiving monthly scholarships under Sports Endowment Fund, has exceeded 100 at the end of calendar year 2025 and the top performers of recently held 35th National Games will also be enrolled for scholarships under Sports Endowment Fund in the coming days.