ISLAMABAD: Oct 14: A 33-member Pakistan contingent is set to take part in this month’s Afro-Asian Games in India, a step that officials hope would be reciprocated by their neighbour sending a squad to Islamabad for next year’s 9th SAF Games.

“We are thinking positively and we foresee the Indians coming to the SAF Games,” Brig Arif Mahmud Siddiqui, the organising secretary of the Games told Dawn on Tuesday.

In the Afro-Asian Games, which open in Hyderabad on Oct 24, Pakistan will compete only in hockey, boxing and swimming.

Suresh Kalmadi, the head of the Indian Olympic Committee (IOC) had pressed for Pakistan’s participation in the Hyderabad Games during the South Asian Sports Federation (SASF) meeting held in Lahore last month.

“He insisted that we send a squad, which in turn would help them, enhance their case of coming to Islamabad,” said Arif, who is also the Director General of the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB).

While the IOA is said to be keen on competing in the SAF Games that have had to be postponed three times since October 2001, it is their government that has to give them the green signal. The Games have been pencilled in for March 29 to April 7.

Pakistan are sending four boxers, six female swimmers and a 16-man hockey team to India along with seven officials.