KARACHI, May 19: The 48th National badminton championship gets under way at the National Sports Training and Coaching Centre (NSTCC) on Friday with men and women team events on the card. National Bank has been top seeded and placed in upper half of the draw of men’s team event while defending champions, Wapda, is seeded second and drawn at the bottom of the 16-team draw.

In the women’s team event, reigning champions, Wapda, tops the seeding with National Bank getting second seed.

Title holder Wajid Ali of Wapda and Ayesha Akram of National Bank have been top seeded in the men and women singles respectively.

The championship will be contested in men singles and doubles, women singles and doubles, men and women team events, mixed doubles and veteran singles and doubles.

The country’s premier badminton championship which carries a total prize money of Rs125,000 is being held under the auspices of Sindh Badminton Association.

According to organizing secretary, Saleem Paracha, 15 affiliated units of the Pakistan Badminton Federation (PBF) namely Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda), National Bank, Pakistan Telecommunications Corporation Limited (PTCL), Railways, Pakistan Military Accounts Department (PMAD), Karachi Port Trust (KPT), New Khan Sports, Sindh, NWFP, Punjab, Balochistan, Islamabad, FATA, Higher Education Commission (HEC) and Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) are participating in the championship.