National Games postponed due to security fears

The recent wave of bomb blasts in some cities of the NWFP and in Lahore last week created panic as the POA summoned its Executive Committee meeting on Tuesday to take a unanimous decision of postponing the games.

“The organising committee (NWFP Olympic Association) had made excellent arrangements for the National Games, but the recent bombings in Lahore and NWFP cities forced all of us to review the decision as we cannot afford the loss of any valuable life,” POA President Lt Gen (retd) Arif Hasan told the media after the meeting.

“Since 5,000 athletes and officials had to compete in the national gala, any untoward incident due to any security lapse could destroy the image of the country and in addition might have caused problems in inviting foreign countries to play here,” the POA president said.

Asked if any other country would send their team to Pakistan after this decision, since the country was not even able to hold its own national games, Arif said holding such a mega event involving 5,000 persons was quite different as compared to holding individual events.

“An individual discipline involves a limited number of participants varying from 10 to 20 which is easy to address, unlike the National Games,” he said.

“Pakistan is to host the Asia Baseball Cup in Islamabad in April and there is also a bid to hold Asian ju-jitsu event this year, so, the international competitions in Pakistan are on the cards,” he said.

The president was thankful to the president of the NWFP Olympic Association Syed Aaqil Shah who supported the decision.

“After all the executive committee members expressed their reservations over holding the games, Syed Aqil Shah supported them,” the POA president said.

Aqil, who also addressed the press conference, said that as hosts he had made all the arrangements, spending Rs10 million, out of a total budget of Rs60 million. But as the security situation worsened after the recent blasts in Lahore and some cities of NWFP, it was not appropriate to hold such a major event.

“I have talked to the NWFP chief minister before giving my consent to the committee to postpone the games,” he said.

He said as it was the turn of the NWFP, the province would take it and would wait till the security improves.

“I am 100 per cent confident that the security situation will improve well before the games,” he said.

Meanwhile, the POA president also issued a written statement on the occasion which says: “The meeting considered all the aspects regarding holding of the Games with special emphasis on the issue of security.

“All the members were briefed about the findings of the POA security committee which had recently visited all the venues of the games in NWFP and held meetings with the top security officials.

“Although there were some issues with the security arrangements, the recent series of bomb blasts raised some serious concerns, regarding an incident-free National Games. All members believe that security of each athlete, official as well as the spectators should be the top priority.”

The POA president said the new dates were set after reviewing the entire schedule of the international games like Youth Games, Commonwealth Games and Asian Games and the holy month of Ashura.

The POA security committee head Khawaja Farooq Saeed, who visited the venues of the games recently, also spoke on the occasion and said that though the organisers had made good arrangements but still no one could guarantee that there would be no security lapse.

Source: http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/sport/national-games-postponed-due-to-security-fears-730