Govt committed to promote sports, healthy activities: Arbab

ISLAMABAD: Adviser to Prime Minister on Establishment, Muhammad Shehzad Arbab on Friday said that the government is committed to developing sports facilities and infrastructure at all levels to provide opportunities to the youth for engagement in healthy activities.

The advisor gave the remarks while addressing at the prize distribution ceremony of Annual Sports Gala, organised by Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University (STMU) in Islamabad today.

Arbab said, “Unfortunately, sports remained neglected area during the previous governments and no priority was given to the improvement of sports structure in the country.”

He said that the present government accords top priority to make improvements in the infrastructure of sports in the country. The adviser added that effective measures were being taken to provide state of the art facilities at the tehsil, district and provincial levels.

The prime minister himself is a sportsman and has a great passion to promote sports in the country, said the adviser, adding that the government has constituted a task force to formulate broader policy framework to facilitate sportsperson and revamp sports boards in the country.

The adviser said that the government is encouraging public-private partnership for the promotion of sports.

Commenting on the return of international sports, Arbab said that international teams and players have started arriving in Pakistan which gives a clear message of safer destination for foreign players.

“As peace and security have returned to Pakistan, the country will host all matches of next Pakistan Super League (PSL) event.”

Highlighting the importance of sports for youth, he said, “Sporting activities in universities are important for students to inculcate healthy and positive values like patience, confidence and discipline and urged the universities for regularly holding sports events to promote healthy trends in the society.”

The adviser assured all-out support of the government to the universities and educational institutions for the promotion of sports activities for boys and girls at their campuses.

He said that women have brought laurels in the realm and emphasised the need for encouraging girls’ participation in sports events.

The adviser congratulated all the winning teams and players for receiving prizes in various competitions and also felicitated management of Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University for the successful organisation of the event.

The adviser distributed awards and medals to the winning teams and all those players who won prizes in various games and competitions.