A Summer Camp or a Farce? Questions Loom Over Provincial Sports Directorate's Performance

 

By Musarrat Ullah Jan (Investigative & Sports Journalist – Kikxnow)

During the current year, the summer camps launched by the Provincial Sports Directorate in different districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including Peshawar, have deteriorated into a regrettable show. Previously, these camps played a vital role in improving players' skills, offering facilities, and fostering sports. Today, they seem to be just "checkbox exercises," a ritual aimed at guzzling budgetary allocations.

In the past, juvenile camp participants were offered sports gear, everyday allowances, footwear, and certificates. This year, not only are all these amenities not available, but the participants are getting nothing even though they had registered for the camps.

The case in a summer camp set up within the Peshawar Sports Complex is even more pitiful. Two Grade 10 staff members have remained idle over the last three days. No children or parents visited on the first day. Five forms were given out on the second day, and four people took the forms on the third, none of whom have completed them so far.

Even more surprising is the PKR 2500 charge for attending these "empty" summer camps. At a time when inflation has paralyzed the masses, this charge is unthinkable on the part of parents. One wonders: why will parents even send their kids to attend these camps when no facility is being offered, and there is no promise of any sort?

Adding to the incredulity, the "chief coach" of the central Peshawar camp, tasked with developing hockey, has traveled to Bajaur with a fellow coach. Considered that grounds in sensitive districts such as Bajaur are shut down for security reasons, what is really these coaches doing there? And another one: how many gifted players has the coach from Bannu generated in his service? Such questions apply to all permanent coaches – why is their performance not being regularly evaluated?

There are also some of the daily-wage coaches who have been given duties in these summer camps, and their photographs were released. But there is no payment arrangement for them, and these are the same coaches who were let go. How are they being forced to labor? Under what act? Is this the start of "forced labor" in a government establishment?

The largest question is: why are the summer camps being conducted in only a few particular districts? Do students from Torghar, Kohistan, Waziristan, and other poor districts have no rights? Are only students from Peshawar worthy of playing? Is the state's sport policy restricted to only urban areas?

The affairs of the Provincial Sports Directorate today do not only prove the seriousness of the institution lacking but also reflect the squandering of public money on mere gestures. Under these conditions, what is desperately needed is:

A separate inquiry committee to be set up within the Provincial Sports Directorate to undertake a thorough examination of the money spent on the summer camp program, the arrangements, and the performance.

 

Summer camps to be guaranteed in disadvantaged areas so that sport doesn't become the preserve of certain regions or social classes.The people and young athletes are entitled to reap full advantages of state facilities – not only through promises and checkbox mechanisms, but through actual, concrete actions.

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