LAHORE, Dec 12: A total of 17 teams and 40 pairs including 15 prominent pairs, are competing in the three-day 12th Balijee National Bridge Championship commences at the Lahore Gymkhana from Friday.

 An attractive amount of Rs 500,000 will be on stake.

The chief organiser of the event Ihsan Qadir said that the competitions, both in the team and pair of men and ladies’ were being held.

Ihsan said that a record number of eight teams from Karachi, six from Lahore and three from Rawalpindi/ Islamabad had confirmed their entries.

Prominent pairs are Rashid Jaffer-Sultan Siddiqui, Masood Mazhar-Akhtar Zaidi, Masood Saleem-Shahin Iqbal, Rashidul Ghazi- Mohsin Chandna, Gulzar Bilal-Amin Hakim, Pervaiz Mirza-Tehsin from Karachi, Saeed Akhtar-Javaid Khalid, Suri-Uzair Kamal from Rawalpindi-Islamabad, Ali Abbas-Hamid Zaman, Shauq Hussain- Kamran, Fehmina-Tahir, Wg. Cdr. M.A Toor-Mian Azhar, Ghias-Izzat Khalil, Muneer Ataullah-Shoaib from Lahore.

The tournament is being held under the auspices of Punjab Bridge Association.