Pakistan PM Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif hosted a banquet in honor of Arshad Nadeem.© Twitter
Arshad Nadeem is currently the most popular Pakistan athlete. The star javelin thrower ended a long drought of Olympic gold medal for his country as he won the event at the Paris 2024 Games with a record of 92.97m. After he returned to his country, Nadeem has been felicitated from all quarters. Recently he was rewarded with 10 million Pakistan rupees and a brand new car by the Punjab government for his historic feat.
Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz handed Nadeem the cash prize and the car keys when she visited Nadeem's village in Mian Chunnu to meet him and his family. “Arshad deserves everything he gets because he has brought so much joy and pride to the nation,” she said.
However, former hockey player Rao Saleem Nazim on Saturday claimed that the Pakistan government insulted several Olympians by withdrawing their invitations for the gala dinner hosted in the honour of Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem in the name of guest management.
Nadeem heaved his spear to 92.97m, shattering the Olympic record on his way to a sensational title win in recently-concluded Paris Games.
"The PM House had sent invitations to several hockey stalwarts to attend the function and they all got emails confirming their invitations," Rao, who heads the former Pakistan hockey players forum, said.
"But at the last moment many of us got a message from the PM secretariat that since they were finding it difficult to adjust the number of guests, the invitations had been withdrawn," he added.
The Olympian questioned the treatment former Pakistan players while holding a function to honour an olympic gold medallist.
"Is this how you show respect to players who have brought not one but several olympic medals in hockey for the country,” Rao added.
Incidentally Pakistan's last gold medal in the Olympics came in 1983 in Los Angeles when Pakistan won the hockey final and the last time Pakistan won any medal in the Summer Games was also through hockey in 1992 when the team won a bronze medal.
Pakistan hockey team has not qualified for the last three Olympic Games.
With PTI inputs