National Games have full support of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa govt: Aqil

KARACHI: Khyber Pakht­unkhwa Olympic Association’s president Syed Aqil Shah on Friday said that KP government had assured full support to his association regarding hosting the 33rd National Games which are expected to be held in Peshawar in October.

Aqil on Thursday met the KP Sports Minister Atif Khan at the latter’s office and briefed him about the 33rd National Games which the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is going to host in October.

“The meeting was held in cordial atmosphere and Atif was very keen and positive and has verbally assured all-out support to both Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) and KP Olympic Association in holding the biennial spectacle in the most befitting manner,” Aqil told ‘The News’ from Peshawar on Friday.

“I told him that we should announce the dates as soon as possible as other provinces will have to contact their respective governments for funding and we also will have to make all preparations,” said Aqil, who is also the head of the POA Sports Commission.

Aqil said that Atif would meet Chief Minister in a few days and after that they would be in a position to unveil the final dates.

Aqil added that this was his second meeting with Atif, adding, KP chief minister had also responded positively during his meeting with him in the recent past.

The chief minister will serve as patron of the organising committee while KP chief secretary will be its chairman.

Aqil said that other committees would also be formed, including media committee, which will be constituted through consensus with the KP Sports Writers Association.

Aqil said that the torch-relay would begin from Mazar-e-Quaid in Karachi and it would pass through Quetta en-route to Lahore, Punjab’s other cities, Islamabad and will be taken to Bab-e-Khyber, Torkham and will then be brought to Peshawar.

Prime Minister Imran Khan will be invited to the opening and President Arif Alvi will be invited for the closing ceremony.

Aqil added that every effort would be made to hold the competitions in a befitting manner.

Quetta was supposed to host the Games last April. But as Balochistan failed to make preparations well in time despite several postponements in the past due to various reasons POA opted to shift the event to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. However Balochistan was told to host the 34th edition of the National Games sometimes next year when they would get ready for that.

National Games are being held at a time when Pakistan would be preparing for the 13th South Asian Games slated to be hosted by Nepal in its cities of Kathmandu and Pokhara from December 1-10.

Shah also intends to invite India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Iran for token participation in the Games.

This is the seventh time that Peshawar will be hosting National Games. Earlier, Peshawar had hosted the Games in 1958, 1974, 1982, 1990, 1998 and 2010.

In 2010 National Games had been conducted in Peshawar in the most fragile security situation. Pakistan Army had played a key role in providing water-tight security to the participating contingents.