Pak National Games postponed indefinitely due to security concerns - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

The annual Pakistan National Games, which were scheduled to be held in Peshawar later this month, have been postponed indefinitely due to the deteriorating security scenario in the country. Addressing a press conference here, National Olympic Committee (NOC) president Arif Hasan said the recent suicide attacks across the country, and particularly in Peshawar have forced the committee to postpone the event. " Foreign teams are already not willing to come to Pakistan because of security issues and we don't want a situation where a domestic event is also affected by some incident," The Daily Times quoted Hasan, as saying. He said the concerned authorities in Peshawar are not willing to give security clearance for the National games, the biggest domestic sporting event in Pakistan in which more than 3,000 athletes were expected to take part. "We took the prevailing situation in the country into consideration and felt the best thing at this stage was to postpone the games. There was also pressure from parent associations to postpone the games and obviously nothing is more important to us than the safety of our athletes and officials," Hasan said.