Medal winners receive cash awards from govt.

Byline: Kashif Abbasi

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan's medal winners of various international events staged during 2017 and 2018 received cash awards from the federal government during a ceremony held here on Thursday.

Federal Minister for Inter-provincial Coordination Dr Fehmida Mirza on Thursday gave the cash awards prizes to athletes who won medals in five disciplines.

However, sources said, this time round the government when compared with the past, introduced a significant cut in prize money.

Fifty-four athletes who won medals at the 2017 Islamic Solidarity Games (Baku), 2017 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games (Ashgabat), 2018 Asian Games (Jakarta), 2018 Summer Youth Olympic Games (Buenos Aires) and the 2018 Asian Para Games (Jakarta) were awarded with cash prizes.

Speaking at the prize distribution ceremony, Dr Fehmida congratulated the medal winners for representing Pakistan and winning medals in international events.

Meanwhile, sources said, a significant cut was made to the prize money, as even the official press release did not carry the details of the cash awards. Furthermore, officials of the Pakistan Sports Board also did not share the details of the prize money of this year and previous years.

However, sources said this time Rs250,000 were given to silver medallists of the Islamic Solidarity Games, Rs200,000 were awarded to the gold medallists the of Asian Indoor Games while Rs100,000 and Rs50,000 were given to silver and bronze medallists.

Sources said Rs500,000 were given to the bronze medal winner of the Asian Games while Rs50,000 were awarded given to the bronze winners of the Summer Youth Games. Rs1 million award was given to the gold medallist of Para Games, sources added.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Sports Board released annual grant worth Rs35.5 million to 19 sports federations of the country.

The federations which were given grants include the Pakistan Judo Federation and Pakistan Wrestling Federation (Rs1.5 million each). A grant of Rs3 million each was allotted for the handball federation and Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Federation while Rs2 million was handed over to the Pakistan Weightlifting Federation.

The federations of football, tennis and kabaddi were given Rs2.5 million each while the Pakistan Squash Federation received Rs1.5 million.

Similarly, the Pakistan Athletics Federation was given Rs2.5 million, Pakistan Netball Federation received Rs1.5 million while the volley ball federation received a grant of Rs1 million.

Pakistan Federation Baseball and the Pakistan Badminton Federation got Rs1 million each, bodybuilding and karate federation were given Rs1.5 million each while an amount of Rs2.5 million was allocated for the national taekwondo federation.