Promoting sports only way to combat terrorism: Hamza Shahbaz

Lahore: Member National Assembly and Chairman Public Affairs Unit Hamza Shahbaz Sharif has said that Punjab govt will continue its healthy sporting activities at all levels to combat with deadly terrorism effectively, he was addressing a meeting of senior journalists at 180-H Model Town on Wednesday.

The meeting was convened to seek valuable suggestions and opinions from top journalists and senior anchorpersons to organize Punjab Youth Festival in a befitting manner in 2015.

Punjab Minister for Sports and Education Rana Mashud Ahmad Khan, MPAs Hina Pervaiz Butt and Mehwish Sultana, DG SBP Usman Anwar, Dr Khaleequr Rehman, senior journalists Sohail Wariach, Raees Ansari, PJ Mir, Kazim Khan, President Lahore Press Club, Arshad Ansari, Rehmat Ali Razi, Neena Akbar, Esar Rana, Malik Ali Ahmed, Shaukat Ali, Jawad Faizi, Zulfiqar Mehto, Imran Yaqub, M Ilyas, Shadab Riaz, Afzal Talib, Aqeel Ahmed, Usman Shami, Najam Wali Khan, Shahbaz Mian, film director Syed Noor, singer Waris Baig, Tauqeer Dar, ace spinner Saeed Ajmal were also present in the meeting.

In the beginning, the participants of seminar were shown a documentary containing prominent features of past editions Punjab Youth Festival.

Hamza said Punjab govt started the Punjab Youth festival campaign from the scratch and right now, it has been known as a largest festival of the world. “Prior to our next grand programme, we felt it mandatory to have guidance from the senior lot of journalists. Our purpose is to involve best brains of the country for chalking out a transparent and standard sports policy,” he added.

He said after having precious input from the leading mediamen, we, definitely, will be able to formulate a sustainable sports policy and then we can hold the next Punjab Youth Festival in better way. “We are on a mission to build a positive image of the country following Chief Minister Punjab’s slogan “Building a better nation through sports and healthy activities,” he continued.

Narrating the tragedy of Peshawar School, Hamza said: “Who can forget the deadly mishap. We can cope with such tragedies only with the projection of healthy sporting activities”. “We are also arranging jobs for the top athletes of the country so that they can serve the motherland without any tension”.

Earlier, Punjab Minster for Sports and Education Rana Mashhood Ahmed Khan presented a brief review of Punjab govt’s previous sporting achievements and made the participants aware with the objectives of the meeting. All the senior journalists spoke on this occasion and gave valuable suggestions for the holding of future sports events in an appropriate way.

Rana Mashhood, speaking to senior journalists, claimed that the PYF 2014 has been recognised as the largest youth festival of the world. “The patronization of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Hamza Shahbaz has played key role in this great achievement. He said that SBP was the only institution of the province which was awarded International Standard Organisation (ISO) merit certificate for its transparency in its sports programmes.