POA meetings in early December

KARACHI: Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) plans to convene meetings in Lahore in the first week of December to discuss important matters.
The issue of prime importance to be discussed in the meetings is Pakistan’s participation in the next year’s South Asian Games in India.
“We will not only hold our executive committee meeting in the first week of December but will also invite federations and government’s officials to discuss various things regarding the event in India and Pakistan’s preparation for it,” POA’s secretary Khalid Mehmood told ‘The News’ from Lahore on Monday. He returned from the United States a few days ago where he and the POA chief Lt General (retd) Arif Hasan attended the meeting of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) in Washington last month.
“We will discuss with the federations the medal prospects in various disciplines, quality of preparation and Pakistan’s participation prospects,” Khalid said.
When told that some federations were yet to begin their preparation for the games, Khalid said it was the responsibility of the federations and they might have planned for it.
A few days ago Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif issued a directive that no team could be sent to India without approval of the federal government.
“There is still enough time. Pakistan’s participation in the South Asian Games is subject to government’s permission,” Khalid said.
The eight-nation extravaganza will be held from February 6-16 in Guwahati and Shillong.
Pakistan is expected to send its security team to India to inspect the sites and venues. It would hold a meeting with India’s security personnel in charge at the government level. The POA’s electoral matter is also expected to be discussed in the meetings. The elections are due in February next year.
To a query, Khalid said he was unaware of the visit of Olympic Council of Asia’s (OCA) president Sheikh Ahmed Al-Fahad Al-Sabah to Pakistan. “I don’t know about any such programme. The POA chief Lt Gen (retd) Arif Hasan must be aware of that,” Khalid said.
It has been learnt that during a meeting with Arif Hasan and Major General (retd) Akram Sahi in Lausanne on October 17, Sheikh had promised to visit Pakistan and resolve the issue of parallel federations.