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KARACHI: In order to create awareness and to develop sports, the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) is going to hold a sports convention in Karachi in June-July.

POA President Lt General (retd) Syed Arif Hassan said this at a media talk held at Karachi Press Club on Saturday.

He said that the convention would be arranged with the assistance of SJAS. During the convention debates would be held with different groups including sports journalists, representatives of sports industry, corporate sector, government and the national sports federations, Hasan said. He said that officials of International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) would also be invited to speak on how sports could be developed.

He said such conventions would also be held in other cities of the country.

About the issue of parallel bodies, he said that the POA would accept only that federation which had the support of at least three federating units and three departments.

He said that sports could be improved only if all the stakeholders joined hands and worked hard for its promotion.

He said that a nation which qualifies for Olympics in any sport discipline normally gets three wild cards.

“We have applied for it in a few games and the result will be known by the end of March,” he said.

He said that national wrestlers had a chance to qualify for the Olympics but they were not fielded in the qualifying rounds. He said Pakistan has a lot of potential in martial arts and if proper attention is given to the field the country may earn more medals at international level.

A media cell will be formed in order to plug the gap between the POA and the sports journalists, he said after he was informed about the problems being faced by the sports journalists.