Punjab launches Sports Endowment Fund
Punjab’s top 200 athletes will receive monthly stipends ranging from Rs70,000 to Rs30,000 in three categories under the Sports Endowment Fund, provincial sports minister Faisal Khokar announced in a ceremony on Wednesday. The platinum category will receive Rs70,000, gold Rs50,000 and silver Rs30,000.
The funds will support 14 sports, including hockey, badminton, swimming, table tennis, volleyball, karate, taekwondo, judo, athletics, weightlifting, squash, boxing, kabaddi and football. Faisal highlighted that this is the first time Punjab has offered such a substantial monthly honorarium to athletes.
Although the government announced a five-billion-rupee Sports Endowment in 2013-14, the scheme never materialised. Now they have launched the scheme again with a reduced amount of Rs2 billion. Additionally, 6,000 youths will receive Rs25,000 per month under the Punjab government’s internship program.
The fund will also establish high-performance training camps and provide support for athletes’ training, injuries, and international competition participation. Moreover, the monthly stipend for the Emerging category has been increased from Rs10,000 to Rs15,000.
Meanwhile, In view of the prevailing situation triggered due to the global coronavirus pandemic, the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) has released over Rs5 million to financially support around 57 athletes.
“Yes, we’ve dispatched Rs90,000 cheques to each of the 57 athletes, who brought laurels for the country by exhibiting outstanding shows in their respective disciplines,” PSB’s deputy director general (Tech) Mohammad Azam Dar told APP.
According to Dar, the amount had been disbursed from the Pakistan Sports Foundation Relief Fund on the special instructions of Minister for Inter-provincial Coordination (IPC) Dr Fehmida Mirza.
The stipend amount has been approved by the executive committee meeting held under the chairmanship of IPC minister,” Dar said. Dar added that only sportspersons, whose age was above 50 years were eligible for financial assistance from the relief fund.
“These sportspersons won medals at national and international levels in athletics, boxing, bodybuilding, football, hockey, kabaddi, tennis, volleyball, weightlifting and wrestling,” he said.
It merits a mention here that these sportspersons had been receiving a monthly stipend of Rs5,000 till the end of 2017 under this fund. However, due to certain reasons the stipend could not be disbursed after that.
But now, Dar said, due to special efforts of Dr Fehmida all their pending dues had been cleared to mitigate the impact of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.