LAHORE, Dec 21: Having failed to get a legal opinion on the status of the Punjab Olympic Association (PbOA), the Punjab government on Friday suggested postponement of the 32nd National Games. The games are scheduled to commence here on Saturday (today).

The Punjab government was proposing postponement of the games at a time when contingents of Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Fata, police, Higher Education Commission, Pakistan Railways and Islamabad have either reached Lahore or are expected to reach shortly.

The PbOA has also reserved many rooms in various hotels to provide accommodation to athletes. The games are scheduled to be held from Dec 22 to 28.

“We are still waiting for a legal opinion about status of the PbOA under a decision of the apex court.

“We contacted the PbOA on Friday to postpone the games, but they refused. So the Punjab government is now not part of the national games,” said Rana Mashood, the deputy speaker of Punjab Assembly, at a press conference on Friday.

Mr Mashood said the Pakistan Sports Board had raised the question of legal status of the PbOA in a letter to the Sports Board Punjab on Aug 29. But surprisingly, the PSB letter had no such contents as it states: “1) Kindly refer to your telephonic conversation with the director-general, Pakistan Sports Board, regarding the above-mentioned subject. 2) I am directed to enclose a copy of the decision of the Supreme Court of Pakistan regarding implementation of the National Sports Policy 2005 as desired.”

According to the decision of the court, the learned judge has cleared the Pakistan Olympic Association from the case by writing that: “Before parting with this judgment, we may note that the matter before us was confined to a controversy between the appellants on the one hand and respondents Nos 1 to 4 on the other. Respondent No 5 — the Pakistan Olympic Association — was not affected by the impugned judgment and remains unaffected by our present decision.”

Though the PbOA is working under the POA, and when both the parties are not affected by the decision of the Supreme Court, Mr Mashood stood his ground on the matter.

Answering a question, he admitted that the Punjab Sports Board wanted the post of the organising secretary of the National Games, but the PbOA refused and this was one of the reasons of not providing cooperation to organisers of the games.

To a question, Mr Mashood said that in fact all office-bearers of the provincial sports associations be replaced with new faces as they had failed to deliver.

He said the Punjab government would not provide tartan tracks for athletics and other sports to the Olympic association which means that the events would be held at the grassy grounds of Railways Stadium.

In fact, Mr Mashood and his company want sweeping powers in organising any sports event, as they had done with the Punjab Youth Festival whose budget reportedly crossed Rs6 billion.

And had Mashood and his company succeeded in getting the seat of organising secretary, then the PbOA would have been only a guest and not a real owner of the games.

Asked when there was ambiguity over the legal status of the PbOA, the Punjab government should extend support to this national cause, Mr Mashood said that advantage of doubt is given in cases of criminal nature.

However, it is a stigma that athletes from all the four provinces would go back without playing in the national games.