LAHORE, July 11: Punjab Olympic Association (POA) has appealed to the government to regain the hosting rights of the ninth SAF Games and hold it in December this year.

The Games had to be postponed twice because of security problems arising due to the Afghan war and tense situation on the Indo-Pak border. and was ultimately transferred to Sri Lanka in a meeting of the SAF Games Federation held at Islamabad on March 21.

POA secretary, Khawaja Idrees Haider, said that as the Sri Lankan Olympic Association had shown its inability for holding the regional gala before the years 2005, it was a great opportunity for Pakistan to get back the Games.

The secretary said the situation was most favourable as the SAARC Summit had also returned to Pakistan and scheduled to be held in Jan, 2004.

The hosting of the games a month before the summit was a golden chance to restore the confidence of foreign visitors to Pakistan.

The secretary said that due to poor sports infrastructure, Pakistan was unable to hold the big sports galas like Asian Games and Olympiad. He said that Pakistan could only host SAF Games and it was unjust to shift it to another country, depriving the people from seeing international athletes in action here.