Hero Card lottery to come under hawk eye

KARACHI: Pakistan Sports Trust’s (PST) Hero Card Scheme is expected to come under the magnifying glass at the top level after the Senate Secretariat in Islamabad received a letter from an influential Senator who has sought detailed information on the project that is generating huge sums of money, writes Khalid Hussain.
Well-placed sources told ‘The News’ that in a recent letter received by the Senate Secretariat on December 18, Senator Enver Baig has requested the Senate Secretary to get detailed information about the scheme from the Sports Minister.
The letter, a copy of which has been obtained by ‘The News’, asks the PST six questions pertaining to the details of the Hero Card Scheme and the funds the Trust has collected so far.
The Hero Card Scheme, which is a sort of a national lottery, was launched two years back to fund the PST, a body headed by Lt Gen (retd) Arif Hassan.
The PST’s motto is to produce sports champions and was launched to help Pakistan win laurels in major sporting events like the Olympic Games and Asian Games.
Senator Baig, a member of the Senate Sports Committee, has asked for the date when the scheme was launched and also the details of the funds generated through it. The letter also inquires about the names of the lucky draw winners since the start of the project.
He wants the PST to provide complete monthly statements of the scheme till the date it is called off and also asks “where the funds were deposited and under what terms”.
His letter asks for the scheme’s expenditure and its bank account details till December 18.
The inquiry comes just days after Pakistan completed their worst-ever performance in the Asian Games history when their contingent of about 146 men and women could just win one silver and three bronze medals in Doha earlier this month.
The timing of the letter is no coincidence.
Sources said that some members of the Senate’s sports committee have been monitoring the scheme in recent times and want to probe whether the funds generated through it are spent properly following the disaster in Doha.
The committee is also planning to summon Arif Hassan and other top national sports officials to grill them on the poor performance of Pakistan athletes in the December 1-15 Asian Games.
Pakistan could just win a silver in Kabaddi and a bronze medal each in hockey, squash and wushu in Doha, a performance far worse than this year’s Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia, where they one gold, three silver and a bronze.