ABBOTTABAD
For the first time, a festival was organized with the name of Chinar Sports Festival to promote ingenious and traditional sports and culture events that got underway here at Kunj Football Complex ground under the aegis of Regional Sports Officer and District Administration Abbottabad on Thursday.
The inaugural ceremony was held at historical Kunj Football Complex Abbottabad with Speaker Provincial Assembly Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani was the chief guest and formally inaugurated the colorful festival to be continued for three days across Abbottabad District.
Deputy Commissioner Abbottabad Tariq Salam Marwat, Assistant Commissioner Hassan Ehsan, Regional Sports Officer Ahmed Zaman, Former DG Sports Tariq Mahmood, Additional Assistant Commissioner Amin Al Hassan, DSO Haripur Faisal Javed, DSO Mansehra Mustafa Khan, DSO Batgram Muhammad Akram, DEO Shaukat, Miss Sameera Javed, representative of the Bank of Khyber and other important personalities were present.
The Chinar Festival was organized for the first time under the auspices of the District Administration and Regional Sports Office. The festival carries events like Tug-of-war, Kabaddi, Javelin throwing, archery, stone lifting and Gutkha competitions, dog rabbit race, marathon race and cycling including concert music, food, various stalls, display of handicrafts, Hindko and Pashto poetry.
Speaking on the occasion, Speaker Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani said that these regional competitions is commendable to name this as Chinar Festival because Abbottabad is called the City of Poplar (Chinaroon Ka Shehar) and there are stories of our love for the Chinar trees. He said that these games have been played by our elders. He said that according to the vision of the Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan, special attention is being paid to sports.
On the arrival of spring, a tree-planting campaign was launched in which poplar (Chinar) plants are being given priority. “We have also launched the plantation drives according to the vision of the Prime Minister Imran Khan to make the country clean and green.
The cultural colors of Gilgit-Baltistan, Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were nicely portrayed through culture dresses and performance on traditional dance on traditional songs. The kids of Lame light Grammar Public School enthralled the sitting spectators. A karate, gymnastic demonstrations of the schools kids of Abbottabad No. 1, 2, 3 and 4 also enjoyed by the sitting spectators, followed by Gathka display and traditional “Mahiya of Hazara.
Earlier, the ceremony was started with the recitation from Holy Quran by Hafiz Muhammad Shakeel, Muhammad Niaz Khan of GHS, Jangai presented a melodious Naat while the school kids presented National Anthem.
All the participating teams also took part in the March Past. In the two events Tug of War Kundia XI of Tahir Munir defeated Abbottabad Blues by 2-1 while in the Kabaddi match Shado XI of Mandian Abbottabad defeated Shafique XI in a thrill-packed opening Kabaddi match by 43-41 points. International Kabaddi Referee Syed Sultan Bacha and Zahir acted as officials in the Kabaddi and Tug of War.
Later on Deputy Commissioner Tariq Salam Marwat and AC Hassam Ehsan gave away certificates, cash prizes, medals and trophies among the position holders.
