Sports Commission meeting today to discuss National Games

KARACHI: In order to discuss various matters of the 33rd National Games, Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) Sports Commission will meet at the Olympic House in Lahore on Friday (today).

The POA vice-president and Sports Commission chairman Syed Aqil Shah will chair the meeting. Aqil, who is also the president of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Olympic Association, is going to hold the National Games in Peshawar from October 26 to November 1.

The Sports Commission meeting will discuss the number of disciplines, events, rules and strength of the contingents. On Saturday (tomorrow), another meeting will be held at Lahore which will be attended by the presidents and the secretaries of all those sports federations whose disciplines will be part of the country’s biennial spectacle.

A senior official of POA told ‘The News’ on Thursday that in Saturday’s meeting the recommendations of the sports commission would be put before the officials of the federations and if they had any objections those would be sorted out.

He said that after a couple of weeks the executive committee and then in one and a half month time the POA general council would be convened to finalise things. National Games were shifted to Peshawar from Quetta a couple of months ago because the latter could not host the event despite having got it in 2012.

Balochistan can host the 34th edition of the National Games next year if all required facilities are available there. KP Olympic Association and the provincial government are on the same page as regards the National Games. The provincial government has already allocated Rs170 million for the purpose. Afghanistan and some other neighbouring nations may be invited to feature in the competitions.