LAHORE: The Pakistan Olympic Association’s (POA) recently constituted Working Committee for the 14th South Asian Games held its first meeting to mark the plans to organise the big SAG event on Friday.

The Working Committee, which was formed by President POA Lt. Gen (R) Syed Arif Hasan earlier this month, met at the Olympic House here. The meeeting was chaired by Muhammad Aamir Jan, President Punjab Olympic Association.

“We aim to host this event in a grand and ideal manner in order to present a soft image to the world that Pakistan is a safe and peaceful country for sports and other international events and has the capacity to hold mega events,” said Amir while addressing the meeting.

“The agenda is to finalize the strategies and finalise the cities which could host various events of the 14th edition of the South Asian Games 2023.”

The committee looked in detail at the infrastructure and facilities required for the Games such as seating capacities, parking areas and accessibility available in the proposed cities to host the competitions in the SA Games.

The members of the committee shortlisted Lahore, Faisalabad, Sialkot, and Gujranwala as venues for holding various disciplines of the Games.

It was decided that the Secretary Generals of the concerned federations will survey the venues and gymnasium halls and will submit their workout plan regarding necessary upgradation of infrastructure and uplift of the facilities at the respective venues.

The requirement of sports equipments as per the International standards for the Games was also discussed thoroughly besides ways to organise the events efficiently and in a befitting manner.

Secretary-General POA Khalid Mahmood, Director Admin Sports Board Punjab and Secretary Generals of the concerned national federations were present at the meeting while some officials attended the meeting online.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2021