POA committee’s visit to Quetta delayed

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

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

“Yes, the visit has been delayed,” a source close to the development 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.

However, the committee member was told that Balochistan’s government would inform the committee through a letter which would clarify when it should visit Quetta.It has been learnt that Munawwar has told a member of committee that by February 28 around 80 per cent 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 would receive a letter from the Balochistan’s government. The National Games are slated to be held in Balochistan’s capital from April 21-29. Meanwhile sources told ‘The News’ that the work on the various projects had been stopped after the abolition 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 laying of tartan tracks and some others have been stopped,” a highly credible source said. It would be a real test for Quetta to organize the biennial event which was postponed several times due to various reasons.

The Balocistan’s government has already approved a hefty amount of Rs800million for the Games. It has been planned to construct an international level swimming pool, laying a tartan track and 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 some 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 would also showcase their talent in 28 disciplines.