ISLAMABAD, March 29: The Indian Olympic Assocition has assured its participation in the next month’s meeting which will decide the fate of 9th SAF Games.

“The President of Indian Olympic Association has telephoned the organisers to say that their representatives will attend the meeting”, according to officials of SAF Games Secretariat here.

South Asian Sports Federation (SASF) is scheduled to meet here April 10-11 to set the new dates for the thrice-postponed South Asian Federation (SAF) Games.

“All the eight member countries of SASF will attend this Executive Committee meeting”, according to officials of SAF Games Secretariat.

The media manager of the Secretariat, Maj. Yahya Ghaznavi, said that representatives of at least five member countries are required to be present for the SASF Executive Committee to convene.

The meeting was deffered from its earlier date of April 1.It has been summoned to set new dates for the Games after the government postponed the event alongside Pakistan Day parade and Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali’s trip to USA in the wake of war in Iraq.

The 9th SAF Games were scheduled for March 29-April 7 before the external circumstances forced the postponement for the third time around.

These were first to be held from Ocotober 6 to 15,2001, but the 9/11 incidents spelled doom for them. A SASF meeting later fixed March 30-April 8, 2002, as the new dates but again a postponement was affected before the new dates of March 29-April 7 were agreed upon.

The April 10-11 meeting, to be chaired by President of Pakistan Olympic Association Syed Wajid Ali Shah, may decide in favour of tranferring the Games to next hosts Sri Lanka, according to sources.

Besides Pakistan and India, the other member countries of SASF are:Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka.— APP