After being postponed thrice for security reasons, the ninth South Asian Federation (SAF) Games is finally all set to see the light of the day on Monday when it gets off to a gala beginning.
The stage is set for the Games to go off with a grandiose opening ceremony, save a few final touches being given here and there to the venues.
The full dress rehearsal of the opening and closing ceremonies is scheduled to be held on Saturday in which more than 8,000 students from various schools and colleges will participate.
Sale of tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies, to be held at the 45,817-seat Jinnah Stadium - Pakistan Sports Complex, is in progress.
The sale of tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies will continue till March 29 and April 7 respectively when the two events actually take place.
Tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies range from Rs 2,000 to Rs 50.
Barring these two ceremonies, the venues for the 15-discipline Games will remain ticket-free.
As many as 567 volunteers from educational institutions have completed training as protocol personnel. All the selected volunteers have been trained by the officials of SAF Games Secretariat, Police and Foreign Office.
Seven SAARC countries along with Afghanistan will participate in the event.
The 15 disciplines in which competitions would be held include athletics, swimming, squash, rowing, shooting, boxing, badminton, table tennis, taekwondo, karate, kabaddi, football, volleyball, wrestling and weightlifting.
Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka will compete in all disciplines while Bangladesh in 13 events except in squash and rowing.
Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and Afghanistan will be represented in lesser number of events.
