PESHAWAR: The sports scholarship of the medallists players of the U16 and U21 for male and female pending since last October 2021 has been released and players could receive their respective amount of scholarship in two or three days.
Director General Sports Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khalid Khan expressed these views while talking to media men here on Monday. He said the Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa issued directives to clear all pending month sports scholarships to the more than 1250 medallists of the Inter-Provincial U16 and U21 Women and Men Games.
Khalid Khan said that Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan Monday issued directives to ensure awarding sports scholarships, pending since last October 2021 to the medal winners of the U16 and U21 Games before Eid-ul-Fitr.
He said in the light of the directives given by Chief Minister KP Mahmood Khan, the Account Manager Amjad Iqbal and his team have transferred Rs. 10, 000, Rs. 8000 and Rs. 5000 to each of the account holder athlete who won gold, silver and bronze medals in U16 and U21 Games.
He said the amount has been transferred to more than 1250 medal winners, whose accounts and positions have been verified by a three members committee headed by Director Female Games Miss Rashida Ghaznavi, Director Operation Syed Saqlain Shah and AD Zakirullah Khan.
He said the sports scholarship will be transferred to account for the months from October 2021 to February 2022 and the remaining month March will be given with the month of April so they could have this money well before Eid-ul-Fitr.
He also advised the players who have yet to get registration for the same sports scholarship as medallists to get form from the account department of the Directorate General Sports so that their name could be included as per the directives of the Chief Minister KP Mahmood Khan.
He said requests have been made repeatedly to the medal winners’ athletes of U16 and U21 Games to ensure provision of their respective account well in time for transfer of the sports scholarship amount.
While welcoming the historical decision of the Chief Minister KP Mahmood Khan, DG Sports KP Khalid Khan said that all the medal winners of U16 and U21 Games were honoured with monthly stipend for one year but it would be extended for three years conditional to the performance of the players.
He said the KP athletes competed side-by-side with athletes from other provinces and departmental teams including Pakistan Army and Pakistan Wapda in U16 Games held here and recorded outstanding performance by winning 58 gold, 35 silver and 14 bronze medals.
Looking after such a very encouraging performance at the national level, the Chief Minister KP decided to award per month stipend for one year to the medal winners. To encourage the players, he said, the Chief Minister KP Mahmood Khan has already given approval of awarding monthly stipends to 1250 medals winners of the U21 Games that including 449 gold medal winners will get Rs 10, 000 per month, 449 silver medal winners will get Rs 8, 000 per month and 515 bronze medal winners will get Rs 5000 per month.
Chief Minister KP has also approved performance based international sponsorships to the players in different Games so that they could be able to achieve name and fame for Pakistan at international level. The boarding and lodging of the players for any of the international events would be sponsored through international sponsorship, Mr. Khalid Khan informed.
He said along with monthly stipends, sports gears of international standard have been provided to the athletes to get much updated playing gear facilities during their practice sessions as well.
“Sports is my dream, I am promoting sports activities as per the vision of the Prime Minister Imran Khan and for this we are working hard for the welfare of sportsmen and sportswomen, ” Mahmood Khan said when contacted.
The Chief Minister said: “I am trying my best to promote sports and will provide sports scholarships so that the players would be able to run their sporting activities at one hand and on the other hand would look after their education with a free mind from financial hardship.”