New sports board to have mostly non-technocrats

New sports board to have mostly non-technocrats

KARACHI: Mostly non-technocrats would constitute the Board of Governors of the proposed Sports Education Development and Infrastructure Board (PSEDIB) which the federal government is going to constitute by restructuring the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB).

The Board of Governors of the PSEDIB would be headed by minister-in-charge of the administrative ministry (IPC) as its president while the secretary of the administrative ministry (IPC) will be the vice-president. The DG PSEDIB, chairman Higher Education Commission (HEC), president Pakistan Olympic Association (POA), secretary general National Paralympics Committee, secretaries of the four provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan and AJK would be the members of the BoG.

No role has been given to the national federations in the administrative set-up of the proposed Board. In the previous setup of the PSB’s ExCo, four or five federations had been given representation besides some former sports gurus.

Some sports experts told ‘The News’ on Friday that putting national federations out of the Board’s structure seemed to be a huge blunder on the part of the think-tanks who have prepared the draft. The draft, prepared by the task force on sports headed by Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ehsan Mani, has been leaked to a section of the media.

“How can you set aside federations which play a key role in sports promotion,” a senior official of a federation told ‘The News’. “Barring the POA president, and if a professional DG is appointed, I don’t think the rest of the members of the Board of Governors would play any role as they all are non-technocrats and don’t know much about sports. We have been associated with these people for years and they know nothing about sports,” the official pointed out.

He also said that these people did not have time to even attend the meetings. Unlike the previous set up of the PSB, the Director General would be the Chief Executive and most powerful person of the PSEDIB. The DG will be appointed on the recommendations of the Board of Governors.

The DG would be authorised to take action whenever a prompt action is needed but he or she will report his or her decision to the Board’s president or vice-president. The DG will be responsible for all monetary transactions and quality implementation of the budget as approved by the ExCo in accordance with the financial rules and would be responsible to implement all the decisions of the Board of Governors. The DG will have powers to run day-to-day affairs of the Board.

According to the draft, the PSEDIB would also be responsible to run sports sciences and physical education programmes up to doctorate level after finalising the modalities and methodologies of the programme through the assistance of HEC and provincial governments.

It means that HEC will have a solid role in sports development. The PML-N government had approved a sports university and had talked with the biggest sports universities of China and Australia but the plan could not be implemented due to some issues in the final days of the previous regime.

The draft also says that sports under the 18th Amendment is a provincial subject. And it seems that the role of the new PSEDIB would be coordination and promotion. The PSEDIB would be responsible to plan, organise, implement sports policy and maintain government-funded sports infrastructure. It would also coordinate with the provincial sports boards and develop sports education through coordination with the provincial sports departments.

The draft shows that the Board’s area of working has been increased and it will also generate revenue through public-private partnership and other channels.

Article source: https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/450647-new-sports-board-to-have-mostly-non-technocrats