Fencing in Pakistan, no recognition at the International level: Fencing News
It is sad that fencing is a sport with very low level of awareness in Pakistan. Even though there are dynamic activities concerning the sport throughout the country, yet it failed to win the attention of the nation. As a result, the sport also lacked promotion
not just within the country, but round the globe too.
Fencing has always been an appealing and power-packed sport and is internationally famous. Especially, many Islamic countries have been hosting its events for the last many years. The neighbouring countries like Iran, China, Iraq and India have a long fencing
history. Considering this fact, not much effort ever directed towards introducing this game in Pakistan.
In 1999, a group of people took the initiative to form Pakistan Fencing Federation (PFF) so as to take care of domestic and international events. In the beginning, training courses were given to promote the knowledge and tactics of the sport. Since then
many boys have taken training and have participated in events at the Asian level, but returned defeated due to lack of sufficient knowledge and equipment.
In 2002, few fencers made efforts to represent Pakistan in a World Championship held in Sheraz, Iran that was organized under the FIE (International fencing Body) and set history for their homeland. During the same year, they were invited to Tehran, Iran
for a Schools Master Course. Later, they participated in the World championship 2004 held at Mushhad, Iran and then in 2005 in Tabrez, Iran respectively.
One of the players, Shafqat Ali, diverted towards introducing the sport among women in the year 2004. He directed himself to government colleges for women to train few individual girls interested in the sport. The first lot that caught attention belonged
to the college Government APWA (All Pakistan Women Association), the center-stage for fencing’s recognition among women.
A camp was set in the college for several months, and then the National Championship was held that continued for a couple of days. The first three positions were awarded to Kiran Mustafa, Amina Hameed and Shazia Nasir respectively. The event was just based
on the Sabre weapon of fencing.
The next objective of the PFF was to introduce the sport at the school level with an age limit from 9 to onwards for both boys and girls. The sport is now in practice in schools like Garrison, LDA (Lahore Development Authority) School and many more.
The next ultimate step was spreading the sport beyond the provincial boundary. Therefore, courses of 2-3 day training were offered and basics were taught regarding the fencing play. These efforts lead to a few Inter-province events that were a huge step
towards the recognition of the sport. Later, Balochistan Fencing board, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtoonkha (formerly called Sarhad) Fencing board came into existence.
The Pakistan fencers, despite of international participation, have not yet succeeded to get the country licensed by the FIE. The issue is the lack of a fencing history for more than ten years. Moreover, the inter-district approvals are made compulsory by
the FIE for Punjab to qualify for a license, which is a tough job. The same condition has been imposed for the other provinces too.
The question is, whether Pakistan will internationally ever get to be recognised in the sport of fencing or not?
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