Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan to open 33rd National Games in Peshawar on Oct 21

By Ijaz Ahmad
PESHAWAR, May 21 Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan will inaugurate the 33rd edition of the National Games on October 21, 2019 while President of Pakistan Arif Alvi will grace the occasion as chief guest at the closing ceremony on October 27, Senior Minister for Sports Atif Khan said in a hurry-called press conference at Conference Hall of Secretary Sports Office here on Tuesday.
Flanked by President Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) Lt. Gen (Retd) Arif Hassan, Secretary POA Khalid Mehmood, Secretary Sports KP Kamran Rehman, MD Tourism Corporation KP Junaid Khan, DG Sports Asfandiyar Khan, Senior Minister Atif Khan said that the govt of KP, Pakistan Olympic Association, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Olympic Association and Directorate of Sports KP are on one page for the smooth conduct of the most awaited 33rd National Games in Peshawar in befitting manners.
He said a total of 12000 athletes from 12 different units including Pakistan Army, Pakistan Air Force, Pakistan Navy, Punjab, Pakistan Police, Sindh, Balochistan, Wapda, Railways, HEC, Gilgit-Baltistan, Islamabad, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and host Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will be taking part. He said the Games would cost Rs. 170 million and certainly it would portray a soft image of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the rest of the world. “We are peace loving and believe in peace and through this Mega National Games we want to give a message of peace to the rest of the world,” Atif Khan added.
He said for the smooth sailing of the National Games different committees would be constituted along with POA, KP OA and Directorate of Sports KP and it would be ensured that the players would be provided international standard facilities at all venues.
About the holding of 22 different Olympic disciplines, Atif Khan disclosed that they have international standard facilities at Abdul Wali Khan Sports Complex, Charsadda, Hayatabad Sports Complex, Peshawar and Peshawar Sports Complex and want to hold some disciplines in the merged tribal districts. Initially two venues have been selected in the merged tribal district Khyber and North Waziristan. In Khyber we have multi-purpose Jamrud Sports Complex and North Waziristan Younis Khan Stadium which could hold the national games events. The players, he said, will be provided best available facilities to make this event a memorable.
About the participation of Asian neighboring countries in National Games, he said, invitations to Afghanistan and other neighboring countries would be sent through foreign office to fulfill the International Olympic Committee motto of spreading peace through Games.
Lt. Gen (Retd) Arif Hassan on this occasion disclosed that talks with Afghanistan Olympic Association, Olympic Association of Sri Lankan, China, Bangladesh and India are continued to participate in the forthcoming National Games and hopefully positive result would be come up.
It would be a big mega event of the country and participating of countries from Asia would give good name to Pakistan, Arif Hassan added. He said he held meeting with Chief Minister KP Mahmood Khan and Corps Commander Peshawar Lt. Gen. Shaheen Mazher Mahmood who extended all out support for holding the best ever National Games in Peshawar.
He said during meeting with Chief Minister, he assured all out support to POA, both financially and morally. About his meeting with Corps Commander Peshawar Lt. Gen Shaheen Mazhar Mahmood, Lt. Gen (Retd) Arif Hassan said that they discussed in detail provision of security during the National Games. He said besides ensuring security by the Pakistan Army to players and officials and visiting teams, the Army Para-troopers Team, international Motor-Bike displaying team, army band and the contingents of Mahsud, Khattak, Chitrali and Batani fold dances teams of Frontier Constabulary (FC) would also be part of the National Games.
He also disclosed that POA has assured govt of Balochistan for holding the 34th edition National Games and hopefully by then all the required infrastructures for National Games in Quetta would be completed.
It is worth mentioning here that KP Olympic Association, having vast experienced of holding such Games for six times in 1958, 1974, 1982, 1990, 1998 and 2010 and it would be the seventh time to get such honor.