TOBA TEK SINGH: University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan has termed it the need of the hour to promote sports activities among the youth for a healthy life and building the sporting spirit to cope with the challenges in life.

He was addressing the inaugural session of the UAF InterHostel Sports Gala on Tuesday.

The sports event will continue till March 17.

Dr Iqrar said until some decades back, especially in the evening, the playgrounds across the country used to be full of players but now one hardly found any players in the grounds.

He said due to the changing lifestyle the healthy activities were facing a decline trend inthe society.

Prof Khan said deserted playgrounds were one of the reasons for increasing diseases in society. However, he added, the state-of-the-art sports facilities were being provided to the students at the UAF. He said modern sports facilities had been established on the campus for girls.

Dr Haroon Zaman said students of all hostels were taking part in the sports gala, which was meant to flourish the sports culture.

Dr Haroon Zaman Khan, Dr Ahmad Sattar, Dr Tariq Javed, Jafar Jaskani, Dr Amjad Aulakh, Umar Saeed Qadri, Dr Bushra Sadia, Dr Riaz Virk, Dr Zafar Iqbal Qureshi, Dr Anjum Zia, Dr Iftikhar, and other notables attended the inaugural session. The sports event includes matches of football, volleyball, athletics, tug of war and kabbadi.