ISLAMABAD, June 27: A 75-member Pakistan contingent for next month’s Commonwealth Games in Manchester has been okayed by the sports board and the Olympic association and is awaiting approval of president Gen Pervez Musharraf.

The contingent, likely to be headed by Lt. Gen (Retd) Zulfiqar Ali Khan, will take part in 13 disciplines. Air Marshal Syed Qaiser Hussain, senior vice president of the Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) will be the deputy chef de mission with Khalid Mahmood acting as the administrative officer and Dr. Waheed Mughal the treasurer.

Pakistan will be competing in hockey, athletics, gymnastics, table tennis, boxing, cycling, judo, badminton, wrestling, swimming, squash, weightlifting and rifle shooting.

While the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) will be footing all the expenses of the contingent, there are atleast five athletes, a swimmer and three marksmen who are being sent by their respective federations.

PSB sources, requesting not to be named, told Dawn Thursday that athletes Mumtaz Ahmed, Allah Ditta, Rana Ghufran Hussain, Ehteshamul Haq and Zeenat Parveen, swimmer Zulfiqar Ali and marksmen Sheikh Amin, Kashif Riaz and Tariq Manzur would be looked after by their federations although they will be part of the contingent.

The names of the squad for the July 25 to August 4 Games are likely to be approved any day now by president Musharraf, PSB officials said. The squad sent for approval:

HOCKEY: Col (Retd) Zafar Ali Khan Zafri (manager), Tahir Zaman (coach), Asif Bajwa (assistant coach), Waqar Saleem Mirza (doctor/physio), Ahmad Alam, Sohail Abbas, Zeeshan Ashraf, Mohammad Usman, Mohammad Saqlain, Waseem Ahmed, Mohammad Nadeem, Mohammad Sarwar, Kashif Jawad, Kamran Ashraf, Mohammad Shabbir, Mohammad Qasim, Tariq Imran, Ghazanfar Ali, Mudassar Ali, Khalid Saleem.