Shunned by international teams, Pakistan now struggles to host even domestic events and its National Games is the latest victim of the prevailing security situation in the country.
Pakistan Olympic Association President Lt General Arif Hasan told a press conference on Tuesday that the games scheduled in Peshawar had to be postponed because the authorities didn’t give security clearance.
The annual games were to be held from March 25 in the capital city of the north west frontier province with over 3000 male and female athletes scheduled to take part in different events.
“We thought it was best to postpone the games because of the security situation prevailing in the country,” he said.
Hasan admitted that the athletes, their parents and some associations also had concerns a about having the games in Peshawar in the current scenario.
“At a time when international teams are already not willing to visit Pakistan due to the security situation we don’t want a situation where our premier domestic event is also hit by some unfortunate incident. It would be very damaging for Pakistan sports,” he said.
Pakistan sports has been hit hard by the prevailing security situation and on Tuesday the International Tennis Federation also moved the Davis Cup Asia-Oceania Group-11 semi final against New Zealand from Lahore due to the security situation.
