Six Months Into 2025–26: The Provincial Sports Directorate Between Paper Claims and Ground Reality

 

Musarrat Ullah Jan , KikxNow , Digitial Creator

Six months of the 2025–26 financial year are already behind us. This is usually the period when a public department’s direction becomes visible and its priorities translate into action. In the case of the Provincial Sports Directorate, however, these six months raise a far more uncomfortable question: what, exactly, has been achieved for sport on the ground?

This is not a question for critics alone. It is a question the officers sitting inside the Sports Directorate and its attached bodies should be asking themselves. With 2026 just around the corner, the real story of these six months is not about athlete development or grassroots activity, but about who benefited administratively and financially while sport itself remained stagnant.

Across nearly thirty five districts, the situation varies in detail but not in outcome. In several districts, District Sports Offices exist only as buildings. The position of District Sports Officer is vacant. This is not a technical issue. It directly affects athletes, coaches, and youth who have no idea whom to approach for facilities, trials, or events. Elected representatives in these areas must also answer why entire districts have been left without basic sports leadership.

The same administration then expresses concern that young people are drifting toward negative activities. That concern rings hollow when the state fails to provide even the most basic sports infrastructure or management presence.

On paper, the story is very different. In the merged districts, the number of sports clubs shown in official records is astonishing. In fact, the figures surpass those of major urban centers such as Peshawar, Abbottabad, Mardan, and Charsadda. On the ground, many of these clubs do not function at all. They exist only in files. What makes this even more troubling is that district offices are fully staffed and salaries are being paid, yet there is no District Sports Officer to take responsibility.

Inside the Directorate, influence appears to matter more than need. Some sports officers rotate conveniently between Peshawar and Charsadda, while remote and underdeveloped districts remain ignored. There are recurring allegations of daily wage appointments benefiting relatives, sometimes even children of officials, through paperwork rather than merit. Bureaucratic power dominates, while ministers appear either sidelined or unwilling to intervene.

In most districts, sports funds are being drawn regularly. What is missing are actual sports activities. This contradiction sits at the heart of the problem. Under the 2018 Sports Policy, the Directorate is responsible for identifying new talent and providing opportunities and facilities for young athletes. The obvious question is how seriously this responsibility is being taken.

A recent video from a local athlete in Hangu exposed the depth of this disconnect. His question was simple: who is the District Sports Officer of his area? If an active athlete does not know, it is unreasonable to expect awareness or trust from the wider public. Similar conditions exist in Tank and other southern districts. In Malakand and Lower Dir, sports activities largely exist on paper, not on fields or grounds.

Transparency is equally absent. An RTI request filed a year ago remains unanswered. One reason may be that a response would require explaining where ten computers went, computers procured by insiders themselves. Silence, in this case, is more convenient than accountability.

 

Perhaps the most alarming exposure came from Swabi, where a human smuggling network was operating under the cover of hockey. Individuals were charged between two to two point five million rupees and taken abroad via Russia to Germany, all under the guise of sports. This is not an old scandal. It belongs to 2025. Despite clear exposure, the Sports Directorate has yet to demonstrate any serious institutional response.

Swabi also offers another symbol of decay. A hockey turf installed this year was already damaged at the time of installation. Its condition has since deteriorated further. The flaws were documented and reported, yet no corrective action followed. The impression is of an administration that sees, hears, and speaks only when it is convenient.

If the expenditure of the last six months were placed side by side, the imbalance would be impossible to ignore. How much was actually spent on promoting sport? And how much went into TA DA claims, official tours, construction projects, and festivals that deliver little lasting value to athletes?

Under the current system, individual pockets appear to be filling while sport itself is being drained. Whatever limited success was seen at the recent National Games came not from institutional support but from the sheer persistence of athletes who continue to train despite neglect. That resilience should not be mistaken for good governance.

This is no longer a matter of administrative inefficiency. It is a matter of priorities. Without serious self accountability, transparency, and corrective action, each new year will look exactly like the last, busy on paper, empty on the playing field.

 

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