WRESTLING IN PAKISTAN

In Pakistan wrestling has a long and honourable history which can be traced a couple of centuries back.However, the glorious traditions of wrestling in our country started with the advent of that great son of Kashmir, the mighty Siddiqa who was at the peak of his powers 125 year ago. The great exponent of Pakistan national style of wrestling was Khalifa Nooruddin who lived in the reign of Aurangzeb. However, to this day he is considered the greatest of the great.After Siddiqa, came Boota Pehelwan, the most scientific of the big wrestlers, and on to Ghulam, Rahim Sultaniwala and Karim Bakhsh Paileeraywala. The latter is considered the most scientific wrestler ever produced by this country, a scholar and a master of art of wrestling at 210 lbs., he flattened all opposition. And later we have the advent of the famous late Gama, who claimed the title of word champion; and his remarkable brother, Imam Bakhsh. As a point of interest it is mentioned here that these great wrestlers, without exception were from among people who had migrated from Kashmir. We are concerned with the advent of Olympic freestyle wrestling in Pakistan. It was in 1953 that the Pakistan Amateur Wrestling Federation was formed in Lahore by a few enthusiasts brought the name of Pakistan in this style of wrestling in world competitions. Though the first three National Championships, in 1948, 1950 and 1952 had been held, yet the international rules were not observed fully and it was this lack of knowledge which was responsible, in 1948, for a team being entered in the Greco-Roman style instead of Free-style and scratched from the wrestling competition in the 14th Olympics, in London. It was only on the occasion of the 4th championships, in 1954, under the control of the Federation, that wrestling was held on a proper mat and strictly under the FILA rules. In 1954, a wrestler, Din Muhammad, was responsible for winning the first gold medal in any international competition for Pakistan when he emerged victorious in the flyweight class of the 2nd Asian Games at Manila. The Pakistani wrestlers have won many medals in the British Empire and Commonwealth Games till this country pulled out of that organization. Pakistan had also been dominating in wrestling competitions of the Asian Games alongwith brotherly Muslim country, Iran. But for a decade or so the countries like North and South Korea and Japan have made a tremendous progress in this manly art and have challenged the supremacy of the two Muslim countries. Pakistan's greatest moment of glory in wrestling, rather any individual sport, came during the 1960 Rome Olympics, when welterweight Muhammad Bashir grabbed a bronze medal. This medal won by Pakistan in the free-style competition is the one and only.