KP Sports Directorate: A Department for Athletics or a Fortress of Secrecy?

 

Musarrat Ullah Jan , KikxNow , Digital Creator

The true character of an institution is rarely found in its glossy brochures, choreographed press releases, or vibrant opening ceremonies. Instead, it is revealed in its silence. Today, the Directorate of Sports Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has become a monument to that very silence—a silence that reeks of evasion, legal defiance, and a deep-seated allergy to transparency.

The case is damningly simple. On July 14, 2025, a Right to Information (RTI) request was filed regarding the commercial shops within the Bannu Sports Complex. By law, a response was mandated within ten days. Months have since bled into one another, calendars have turned, yet the department remains paralyzed. This delay is not mere "bureaucratic lethargy"; it is a calculated strategy of stonewalling.

This is the same Directorate that beats the drum of "Sports Reforms" every budget cycle, waxing lyrical about the "bright future of our youth." Yet, the moment the spotlight shifts to accountability and public records, the doors are bolted, phones go dead, and files vanish into thin air.

The inquiries are far from a threat to national security. They are basic questions of public interest:

• How many shops exist within the Bannu Sports Complex?
• To whom were they leased, and through what process?
• What is the monthly revenue, and into whose pockets is it flowing?

These are public assets, built with taxpayer money. The public has an inherent right to know how their property is being commercialized.

The rot goes deeper than one complex. The current leadership seems to believe that the word "Sports" can be used as a shield to deflect scrutiny. Under this veil, we see a disturbing trend: events exist only on paper, coaches exist only on payrolls, and sports complexes are slowly cannibalized into commercial marketplaces.

Across KP, sports facilities are being transformed into "revenue centers," yet the accounting of this revenue remains a black box—undisclosed at both district and provincial levels.

Where is the Public Information Officer (PIO)? Is the role a functional responsibility or merely a decorative title? When a department ignores a legal request for months, it signifies more than an individual’s failure; it signals a culture of impunity.

The Directorate may hope that time will bury these questions. They are wrong. Silence does not extinguish curiosity; it fuels suspicion. Today the focus is on Bannu; tomorrow it will be the complexes in Peshawar, Mardan, Swat, and D.I. Khan.

The ultimate victims of this opacity are the athletes. When rental income disappears into an accounting vacuum, facilities crumble. When transparency is treated as an enemy, progress stalls.

The Directorate must understand: RTI is not a favor; it is the law. To deny information is not just an administrative lapse—it is a legal violation.

The Sports Directorate stands at a crossroads. It can choose to be a genuine governing body for athletics, or it can continue to function as a private estate managed through files, shops, and secrecy.

Transparency is not a weakness. Accountability is not an attack. If the records for the Bannu Sports Complex remain hidden, this will no longer be a matter of a single RTI request. It will become a trial of the entire system—a trial where silence will no longer be an acceptable defense.

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