KP traditional games to start on May 19

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa traditional games will commence on May 19 in two different phases at the district and later on regional levels.KP Director-General of Sports Khalid Khan told media men here on Monday that preparations had been completed in this regard.

He said such games were the annual feature of the Directorate General Sports Calendar.The games are being held in the districts. After completion of the rounds at the district level, these would be organized at the provincial capital Peshawar wherein players of all the traditional games would be invited to Peshawar.

He said the traditional games would kick off on May 19 at Mardan, Swabi, Buner, Lakki Marwat, Bannu and North Waziristan and South Waziristan, followed by other districts in the first phase and later on at the regional level.

These games will be held in phases in all regions after which the best teams will be selected and the finals will be in Peshawar, Mardan, Kohat, Dera Ismail Khan, Hazara, Bannu and Swat.At the divisional level, competitions of other traditional sports, including inter-district level Kabaddi, Mukha, Volleyball and Gatta will be held.

Final competitions will be held in the provincial capital at the end of the divisional games.Khalid Khan said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was rich in traditional sports and a comprehensive plan has been chalked out to revive indigenous games.

He said in the present age of computers the children were restricted to their homes playing computer games, and video games.These games have no benefit to our youth as they do not have any physical exercise, Khalid Khan added.

He said the government was very keen to provide healthy entertainment to the youth for this purpose such an initiative has been taken.The official said they were also planning to have similar traditional games for women players as well, which had been ignored earlier but the government was giving equal opportunities.

He said the youth who had suffered due to terrorism need to be involved in such healthy activities.Khalid Khan said the purpose of holding games was to keep alive the traditional games of each district.He said all necessary steps had been taken to provide the best facilities to the players and officials.“We will try our best to hold the final games in Peshawar in the best possible way,” he added.