Tuesday, December 15, 2009
By Alam Zeb Safi
KARACHI: After a long drought of international sports, Pakistan is finally set to host the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto International Boxing tournament which will be held here at the KPT Benazir Sports Complex from January 1 to 9, next year.
This was disclosed here by the President of the Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF) Doda Khan Bhutto during a press briefing on Monday.
Also present on the occasion were the secretary of the PBF Muhammad Akram Khan, the senior vice-president Iqbal Hussain and the chairman of the referees/judges commission of the PBF Ali Akbar Shah.
Doda, who is also the chairman of the organising committee of the tournament, said that around 20 countries have both verbally and in written confirmed their entries for the nine-day event.
These countries are India, China, Afghanistan, Hungary, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Thailand, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Cameroon, Ghana, Yemen, Bangladesh, Central Africa, Iraq, Kenya, Mangolia, Singapore and Syria.
He further said that Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Indonesia, Taiwan, Palestine and Jordon are also expected to send their boxers for the competition.
Pakistan�s two teams with the name of �Whites� and �Greens� will feature in the tournament for which the names of the boxers will be announced soon after the completion of the National Ranking Boxing tournament and after taking an input from Cuban coach Francisco Roldan.
The PBF president added that around 125 boxers and more than 60 officials will feature in the tournament which will be held in all of the eleven weight categories.
He said that Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, who is also the Patron-in-Chief of the organising committee of the spectacle, will be the chief guest during the opening ceremony on January 2 while president Asif Ali Zardari has been requested to grace the closing ceremony.
To a query he said around Rs 60.30 million will be spent on the tournament for which the Prime Minister and the President have issued orders but the PBF is waiting for the release of funds.
He informed that Rs6.5 million will be given away in cash awards to the top pugilists.
He said that thick security arrangements are being made, saying, in a meeting in which the officials of Rangers and Police also took part on Monday here, the security issue was thoroughly discussed and he feels that there will be no such difficulty in the area.
He also unveiled that the presidents of the world boxing governing body (AIBA) and the Asian Boxing Confederation (ASBC), world champion Aamir Khan and Pakistan�s former boxer and the 1988 Seoul Olympics bronze medallist Syed Hussain Shah will also come to witness the event which will help Pakistan improve its soft image.
The AIBA and other top dignitaries will be boarded here at the Marriot Hotel while boxers will be given accommodation at the Mehran Hotel. He said that the slogan of the competition is to �hit terrorism and love peace�.
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