LAHORE: The Pakistan Olympic Association has in its plans to set up a a separate body to look after sports at the school level, Dawn learnt on Monday.

The final decision, however, will be taken after an amendment in the POA constitution and its approval by the national Olympic body’s executive committee and general council with both set to meet in Lahore on January 11 and 12 respectively.

The school-level body, if formed, will not have the voting rights for the 2020 POA elections but will be able to vote for the 2024 term.

The body will have its divisional and provincial representative units, which will be elected before the national level body is finalised.

The general council meeting will also have on its agenda the holding of the National Games.

The flagship POA event has been subject to postponement since the last six years after the 2014 edition was awarded to Quetta. Security and infrastructure issues were reported to be the reasons for the Games’ continuous delay.

The POA, in these six years, has also failed to hold the Games at another venue.

The general council is also expected to approve the establishment of the National Olympic Academy and the holding of the inaugural National Youth Games, National Beach Games and the forming of a marketing department for the POA.

The council will also approve decision regarding Pakistan’s participation in different sports galas during 2019 including the first Winter Children of Asia Games (Sakhalin, Feb 8-17), 13th South Asian Games (Kathmandu, March 9-18) and the first ANOC World Beach Games (San Diego, Oct 10-15).

Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2019