On the Quaid Trophy and why the 2012 Winner shall not get it |
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28-Dec-2012
 To the POA’s utter dismay, the National Games 2012 winners have been deprived of the most honoured, prestigious and historic silverware – the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy. Not because POA intended to deprive them of the honour of its ownership – for two years. The Pakistan Army Sports Directorate refused to return the Trophy to the POA. They have intimated that it is Government property and that if the POA wants it back they should
 approach the Government.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The shield which has been presented to every winner since the 1948 National Games, was donated by the Quaid during the First National Games and that too from his ‘personal’ purse and not the Government of Pakistan funds- and this when he was the Patron- in- Chief of the Pakistan Olympic Association.
In each Games the winner was awarded this Trophy, and it had a pride of place in its Trophy cabinet. But its lien on it lasted only until… the next Games – when a fresh winner had the honour of competing for it and deserving it.
To this day, the tradition was followed in spirit and letter – with the previous winner promptly returning it for the award during the closing ceremony of the next games.
But this time round Wapda, the deserving winner of the 2012 Games, shall not be able to flaunt it. Our pleas, our coaxing and  cajoling fell on deaf ears. Our reminders of what Fair Play – the very essence of sport – demanded were stubbornly not heeded to.
There was nothing in our power to snatch it back from the claws of the unlawful beholder – other than the Moral Power of Pakistan’s sporting fraternity. We can't storm the Army Sports Directorate. But create a storm we will.
The Legacy of the QUAID for the National Games has been destroyed today- just two days after his Birth Anniversary was celebrated by the nation. Another sad day for the QUAID |
