KP Sports Grant Hit by Nepotism Allegations; Case Escalates to Provincial Ombudsman

Musarrat Ullah Jan , KikxNow , Digital CREATOR

PESHAWAR: A major controversy has erupted within the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sports Department over the alleged mishandling of a Rs 48 million sports grant, raising serious questions about administrative transparency, selective bias, and financial oversight.

The dispute has now escalated to the Provincial Ombudsman after three members of the Asia Cup Wheelchair Cricket contingent were reportedly frozen out of the financial disbursement without justification.

According to inside official sources, the Rs 48 million grant was formally approved by the KP Provincial Cabinet based on an official summary drafted by the Deputy Director of Sports and forwarded by the Secretary Sports.

The approved summary explicitly earmarked funds for two distinct contingents, covering players, coaching staff, and team coordinators:

1.      The Asia Cup Wheelchair Cricket Team

2.      The Afghanistan Series Team

Despite the Cabinet approving the budget based on this comprehensive list, the actual disbursement tells a radically different story.

The core of the controversy centers on systemic exclusion and a lack of institutional accountability:

·         Unexplained Omissions: At least three legitimate members of the Asia Cup wheelchair cricket squad were completely omitted from the final payout, with no formal clarification or recorded justification provided by the department.

·         The "Silent Treatment": The affected sports personnel claim they made repeated attempts to seek answers from administrative officials. Even after serving a formal legal notice, the Sports Department maintained total silence.

·         Document Manipulation: Sources allege that subsequent departmental communications and official event programming deliberately highlighted only one team, effectively erasing the Asia Cup squad from the narrative to cover up the selective distribution.

Refusing to be sidelined, the aggrieved athletes and officials have formally approached the KP Provincial Ombudsman, launching a scathing complaint that demands a top-to-bottom inquiry.

·         A full forensic audit of the initial Cabinet summary versus the final distribution records.

·         Public disclosure of the exact criteria used to exclude specific squad members.

·         Strict administrative and legal accountability for the officials responsible for the discrepancy.

If these allegations are verified by the Ombudsman, it will expose severe lapses in internal verification mechanisms, compromised fund distribution controls, and deep-rooted governance failures within the provincial sports administration. For a department tasked with uplifting adaptive sports, this scandal threatens to severely damage its institutional credibility.