RAWALPINDI - MNA Malik Ibrar, who is Divisional Sports Committee chairman, announced to organise finals of three remaining events of the Punjab Youth Festival (PYF) divisional level winners from today (Friday) here at Pindi Cricket Stadium and Shahbaz Sharif Sports Complex.
The competitions will be held among nine divisional teams of Punjab. Addressing a press conference here at Pindi Cricket Stadium along with Director Sports Board Punjab (SBP) Jaleel Ahmed, DO Sports Rawalpindi Shah Manzar and DSO Rawalapindi Abdul Waheed Babar, Ibrar said: “The competitions of cricket, badminton and table tennis between the champions of Lahore, Shaiwal, Multan, Sargodha, Faisalabad, Bahawalpur, Gujranawala, Dera Ghazi Khan and hosts Rawalpindi.”
“The events were originally scheduled to be held in Lahore, but due to hot and humid conditions of the city, we requested to shift the events to Rawalpindi, I am very grateful to Chief Minister Punjab Mian Shahbaz Sharif and Hamza Shahbaz who very kindly accepted our request and allocate the events to Rawalpindi. We will prove that Rawalpindi is a sports loving city and we will provide excellent accommodation at the best hotels of the city to all the visiting teams,” he added.
He further said: “Cricket matches will be played at Pindi Stadium today (Friday) and day after, the final will be held on May 12 as May 11 is the rest day. The badminton and table tennis matches will be held at Shahbaz Sharif Sports Complex on same dates while the finals will be held on May 12.”
Ibrar promised to construct a number of grounds for the youngsters of Rawalpindi. “I have written a letter to Railways and request them to allocate a land located at garage Factory or lease out to City District Government, where we can construct state-of-the-art cricket grounds as Rawalpindi is densely populated. Punjab government hardly has any suitable space for construction of grounds so we have also taken Army on board, as they have a lot of covered area, where we can construct grounds. We are already utilizing Army facilities and they are very kind as whenever we request them for their facilities, they never let us down.”
He further promised to take up grounds issue with the CM Punjab and try to allocate piece of land on the left side of Rawal Road for different mini sports activities. “We have already allocated right side of Rawal Road for swimming pool, gym and practice pitches while left side will be ideal for volleyball, basketball, badminton, table tennis, tennis courts and different practice pitches will be laid down to provide maximum facilities to the youth of the area.”  “We need to engage youth in healthy sporting activities, as sports lover Mian Shahbaz Sharif has allocated billions of rupees for the Punjab Youth Festival, which is a great success. I am quite sure being a found sports follower Hamza Shahbaz will listen to my genuine demands and very soon there will be a number of sports grounds in the city,” Ibrar concluded.