Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar on Monday underlined the need to keep politics separate from sports for the betterment of both the fields, highlighting the government\u2019s commitment to youth development and sports promotion nationwide.<\/p>\n
\u201cPolitics should be kept out of sports and sports out of politics; this is better for both the sports and politics,\u201d the minister said while speaking as the chief guest on the occasion of a friendly cricket match between the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Sports Journalists Association (RISJA) XI and a UK Media team at the National Cricket Ground here.<\/p>\n
Congratulating the match organizers, Tarar welcomed such initiatives, noting that increased sports activities foster positive societal attitudes. \u201cHealthy activities are crucial to promote games, cricket, and sportsman spirit,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The minister highlighted the government\u2019s extensive efforts in sports promotion, calling it a \u201ctop priority\u201d to encourage positive engagement among young people.<\/p>\n
He noted the continuity of youth-centric programs during the tenures of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) tenures, saying \u201cthe Prime Minister\u2019s Youth Program, started during the era of PML-N Quaid Nawaz Sharif, is being carried forward by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tarar said the Talent Hunt Program, initiated during the previous PML-N government, continued to receive support. He urged collaboration between political parties, the private sector, and the public sector to enhance talent discovery for sports advancement.<\/p>\n
Highlighting recent successes, he cited Javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem, who made his mark globally, as an example of talent emerging from initiatives like the Youth Festival.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have abundant talent,\u201d Tarar said, adding that more talent hunt programs and youth festivals will be organized to discover athletes like Nadeem and help sports like hockey regain their lost status.<\/p>\n
To a query, he said planning for an international-standard cricket stadium in Islamabad is underway.<\/p>\n
Tarar also spoke on the revival of departmental sports, noting their importance in nurturing talent. In the past, the discontinuation of departmental sports left many players unemployed, he recalled.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen our hockey team returned after an impressive performance in the Asia Cup, the Prime Minister restarted this system,\u201d the minister noted.<\/p>\n
He added that instructions were given to ensure the system benefits past players as well, recognizing that departmental sports produced great players.<\/p>\n
As regards the Pakistan Television (PTV), the minister said the national TV cricket team selection was purely based on merit, mentioning Shamyl Hussain\u2019s outstanding performance. \u201cFor the first time, no \u2018parchi\u2019 (chit) was used for inclusion in the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also noted that PTV\u2019s financial condition is better than many private channels and that the state broadcaster had aired the Champions Trophy and World Cup live.<\/p>\n
Tarar said the Pakistan Super League (PSL) brings global players to the country, offering the nation a chance to watch exciting and competitive cricket.<\/p>\n
He expressed confidence that the PSL would be a victory for Pakistan and cricket.<\/p>\n
Responding to a query about the national team\u2019s performance, the minister acknowledged that wins and losses are part of sports.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Pakistan cricket team possesses a lot of talent,\u201d asking the nation to remain hopeful for improvement as the Pakistan cricket team has achieved great feats in the past.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar on Monday underlined the need to keep politics separate from sports for the betterment of both the fields, highlighting the government\u2019s commitment to youth development and sports promotion nationwide. \u201cPolitics should be kept out of sports and sports out of politics; this is better for both the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":74776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79259"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79269,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79259\/revisions\/79269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}