or many years now, the annual sports event has not been held in the 422 educational institutions being run by the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE).

The annual event, which is part of the educational calendar in the Islamabad Capital Territory, include cricket, hockey, basketball, football, kabaddi, tug-of-war, table tennis and other sports.

And due to the lack of sporting events, play grounds in many schools and colleges have been abandoned and are not being kept up.

In the past, all educational institutions would have their own kits for various sports and their students would participate in annual games, which have not been held for a few years now.

Teachers in various FDE run institutions say the lack of sports activities are due to a shortage of funds and proper management by the FDE.

`In the past, we would collect funds from students for organising sports activities but due to the implementation of the right to free and compulsory education law, we cannot ask for donations,` one teacher said. He added that the directorate also did not allocate funds for sports activities.

All the schools would also have a physical training instructor with a diploma in physical education but now, the posts of physical training instructors have were upgraded to that of teachers.

`Sports are important but we were not being given ample funds to conduct sports activities,` said Ghulam Sarwar Arian, the principal of the Islamabad Model College for Boys G-8.