Govt takes number of steps to promote sports: Ahsan

NAROWAL, Dec 10 (APP):Minister for Interior Ahsan Iqbal Sunday said the government had taken a number of steps to promote sports at provincial and national levels.
Addressing the concluding ceremony of Sports Gala 2017 held here under District Council Narowal, the minister said due to policies of the government, international cricket had been restored in the country as Sri Lankan team had played a cricket match in Pakistan while the West Indies Cricket Board had agreed to play matches here.
He said that a sports city had been established in the Narowal district in which the government had provided
facilities of 14 different indoor and outdoor games.
He said the unique nature of sports city helped the youth get coaching of different games from international players.
He directed the local administration to organise a sports gala for women in order to create opportunities for them.
Ahsan Iqbal said that sports helped the youth to groom their personalities and the government would provide all-out support to promote sports in the country.
The minister said the motto of the sportsman should be to win or lose with smile but unfortunately some players had joined politics and staged sit-ins which created hurdles in the development process.
He said that in the year of 2013, the people were facing 20-hour loadshedding and now they were happy on zero loadshedding.
At the end, the minister gave away prizes to the the winning teams.
Earlier, District Council Chairman Ahmed Iqbal, in his welcome address, said that 3,000 youth of 98 union councils participated in six games during the sports gala.
PML-N MPA Khuwja Waseem Butt, chairmen and vice chairmen union councils, and others were also present.