National Games: POA inspection body’s visit to Quetta delayed

KARACHI: The visit of a committee of the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) to Quetta for inspecting venues being prepared for the 33rd National Games has been delayed, ‘The News’ reliably learnt on Tuesday.

The POA had announced last month after its sports commission meeting in Lahore that the venue inspection committee would visit Quetta in the second week of February so that necessary decisions might be taken in the next meeting of the POA general body likely to be held in March in Quetta.

“The visit has been delayed,” a source told this correspondent.It was learnt that a member of the committee, who has also been given the responsibility to coordinate with the organisers of the National Games, contacted Balochistan Director Sports Munawar Khan on Monday regarding the committee’s visit.

The committee member was told that Balochistan’s government would inform the committee through a letter when it should visit Quetta.It has been learnt that Munawar has told a member of the committee that by February 25, around 80 percent of the work on different venues would be completed and the committee could visit on February 26.

However, the source said the exact date of the visit would be known when the committee received the letter from the Balochistan government. The National Games are slated to be held from April 21-29.

Sources told ‘The News’ that the work on various projects had been stopped after the de-seating of the PML-N provincial government which was led by Sanaullah Zehri last month.“After the fall of Zehri’s government the work on the projects, including the laying of tartan tracks, has been stopped,” a highly credible source said.

The Balocistan government has already approved a hefty amount of Rs800 million for the Games. It has been planned to construct an international-level swimming pool, lay a tartan track and an artificial football turf. Import of equipment is also in the plans.

The last National Games had been hosted by Punjab in Lahore in 2012. As Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is going to host the Inter-Provincial Games in the third week of next month, a source in Balochistan Olympic Association (BOA) said that BOA would try to convince the POA that there should be ample gap between the two spectacles.

KP is going to host a meeting of all the participating units at Peshawar on February 22 to discuss various matters of the Inter-Provincial Games in which besides four provinces the athletes of Islamabad, Gilgit Baltistan, FATA and Azad Jammu and Kashmir will also showcase their talent in 28 disciplines.