August 26, 2003	Tuesday	Jumadi-us-Sani 27, 1424

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LAHORE, Aug 25: An extraordinary executive committee meeting of the South Asia Sports Federation (SASF) will be held in Lahore on Sept 18 to decide the fate of the SAF Games.

This was stated by a Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) spokesman on Monday.

SASF had shifted the Games from Pakistan to Sri Lanka due to political reasons, in its last meeting held at Rawalpindi on April 10.

Sri Lanka refused to host the 9th edition of the games as they are already designated to hold the 10th edition of the regional event.

Consequently Bhutan and Maldives requested Pakistan to reconsider the matter and to make all possible efforts to hold these Games here.

Bangladesh is also bidding to host the Games in 2004.

The government of Pakistan reviewed the request and gave its approval after which the SASF meeting was summoned.

The spokesman said that since the executive committee of SASF was the only competent forum to decide about holding these Games, therefore, hopefully a decision would be taken on Sept 18.

The spokesman said that notice of the meeting had been issued to  all the member countries of SASF namely  Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

The meeting will be chaired by the SASF and POA president Syed Wajid Ali Shah, and would be attended by the delegates of the NOCS of the member countries as well as by chairman of the 9th SAF Games organising committee Lt Gen Syed Arif Hassan.