35th National Games kick off in Karachi after 18 years
Chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, formally inaugurated the Games
35th National Games kick off in Karachi after 18 years
Chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, formally inaugurated the Games
By Nawaz Gohar : The opening ceremony of the 35th National Games was held at the National Stadium in Karachi, where Olympian athletes lit the traditional torch, and Chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, officially declared the Games open.
On the occasion, Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, President of the Pakistan Olympic Association Arif Saeed, Adviser to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government for Sports and Youth Affairs Taj Muhammad Tarand, and Sindh Sports Minister Sardar Muhammad Bakhsh Mehar were also present.
In the country’s largest sporting event, contingents from all four provinces, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, Islamabad, Pakistan Army, WAPDA, Police, Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan Air Force, Pakistan Navy, and Railways took part in the march-past. During the march-past, international javelin thrower and gold medalist Arshad Nadeem carried the national flag and made a round of the stadium.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was represented at the opening ceremony by Chief de Mission and Director General Sports Tashfeen Haider, accompanied by Additional Secretary Sports Pir Abdullah Shah, Deputy Chief de Mission Rahmat Gul Afridi, Deputy Chief de Mission (Female) Safeena Babar, Ilyas Afridi, HEC’s Bahr-e-Karam, Contingent Secretary Amjad Khan, Shah Faisal, and other officials.
In the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa contingent, international badminton player Murad Ali carried the provincial flag. More than 11,000 players and officials are participating in the National Games across 32 different sports, including 4,663 athletes, 2,566 men and 2,097 women. The competitions will continue until December 13 at various venues across Karachi.
Addressing the opening ceremony, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said it was a proud moment to hold the National Games in Karachi after 18 years. He added that the enthusiasm of the youth proves the country’s future is extremely bright. He expressed hope that many of these athletes would go on to make Pakistan proud at the international level and present a positive image of the country to the world.
