Pakistan postpones National Games 17/03/2010 |
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Pakistan’s National Olympic Committee has announced that the country’s National Games, scheduled to take place in Peshawar this month, have been postponed because of security concerns.
The news follows a decision earlier this week by the International Tennis Federation to move a Davis Cup tie due to be played in Lahore in July to New Zealand after a request from the visiting team.
A series of militant attacks, including the ambush of the Sri Lanka cricket team's bus last year, has led to serious question marks over the security situation in Pakistan.
National Olympic Committee president Arif Hasan said: "Teams are already not willing to come to Pakistan because of the security issues and we don't want a situation where a domestic event is also affected by some incident."
The National Games are the biggest domestic sporting event in Pakistan, with more than 3,000 athletes competing in various events.
Hasan added: "We took the prevailing situation in the country into consideration and felt the best thing at this stage was to postpone the Games.
"There was also pressure from parents and associations to postpone the Games and obviously nothing is more important to us than the safety of our athletes and officials."
The National Games have already been postponed once due to security issues. Hasan said new dates in December were subject to security clearance.
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