March 20, 2003	Thursday	Muharram 16, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, March 19: The South Asian Federation (SAF) games are likely to be postponed for the third time due to impending US-Iraq war in the Gulf, sources told Dawn on Wednesday.

They said official announcement regarding shelving of the games will be made within next two days.

The SAF Games had already been postponed twice, first because of the events of Sept 11 and then again when Pakistan and India nearly went to war.

According to the schedule, the SAF games had to be started by March 29 at Liaquat Gymnasium, Islamabad and concluded till April 7. It was to be inaugurated by President Gen Pervez Musharraf.

An organizer of the games said the decision to postpone the SAF games had so far not been taken. However, in case of war, the flights schedule would badly disturb and the teams would not be able to turn up.

He said India had already announced that it would not take part in the games and thus all the flights had to be flown from Dubai. The official agreed that the people of Pakistan would not be in festive mood, if the United States attacked Iraq in the coming days.

He said most of the countries could be reluctant to send their teams due to security risk and possible reaction of Pakistani nation against the United States.

Some of the teams, he said, had already arrived but in case of war several teams of various countries would prefer to postpone their visit.