LAHORE, May 24: A contingent of 37 athletes and officials will represent Pakistan in the Olympics which are starting in Beijing, China, from Aug 8 to 24.

This was stated by Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) president Lt Gen Syed Arif Hasan at a news conference after an Executive Committee meeting at a hotel here on Saturday.

He said Pakistan would take part in four disciplines, namely athletics, hockey, shooting and swimming, and the contingent comprised 21 players, 10 team officials and six contingent officials.

Chef de mission, secretary, administrative officer, treasurer, doctor and security officer are the contingent officials.

“It is for the first time that it has been made mandatory to send a security officer with the contingent,” Gen Arif Hasan said.

About Pakistan’s chances of winning medals at the mega event, he admitted that he had hopes only from the hockey team as Pakistan was featuring in the other three disciplines through wild card entries and had no chances of winning any medal therein.

The house, the POA chief added, had elected Punjab Inspector General of Police Shoukat Javed as vice president of the body against a vacant post.

Highlighting the other decisions taken at the meeting, he said Pakistan would take part in boxing, swimming, weightlifting and wrestling at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune, India, from Oct 12 to 18.

Pakistan would then take part in bodybuilding, handball, kabaddi, sailing, volleyball and wrestling competitions in the first Asian Beach Games in Bali, Indonesia, from Oct 18.

Gen Hasan said the National Olympic Committee was concerned about the formation of parallel bodies at provincial levels and in recent years, had undertaken several measures to resolve their disputes.

“A few disputes still exist in some national and provincial associations. We will address them soon,” he asserted.—Agencies