LAHORE (Kashmir English): The Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) will forward its recommendations to the government for the allocation of grants to national sports federations under the proposed National Sports Policy 2026.
The initial draft of the policy, a document based on Qatar’s sports funding model, has been circulated among national sports federations for feedback.
POA president Arif Saeed addressing a press conference alongside a delegation from the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), said meaningful progress in sports could only be achieved through cooperation between the government and sports federations.
20th Asian Games
The OCA delegation oversaw activities related to the Fun Run organised at Lahore College for Women University in Lahore on Monday in connection with the 20th Asian Games, scheduled to be held in Japan in September 2027.
Arif welcomed the government’s initiative to formulate a new sports policy and said the POA had developed a document outlining a performance-based funding mechanism.
He also thanked Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for introducing the new sports policy.
The POA president proposed classifying federations into A, B and C categories according to the volume and quality of their activities.
He acknowledged that responsibility for the poor state of sports in the country did not rest solely with the government.
Referring to a proposal in the draft policy that both federal and provincial governments allocate two per cent of their development budgets to sports, Arif termed it a positive recommendation but cautioned that similar proposals in other sectors had often not been implemented in letter and spirit.
The Fun Run was organised to promote friendship, unity, excellence and healthy living.
The 20th Asian Games will be held in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, in September next year.
