Pakistan Special Olympics delegation arrives in Athens five members short
Five team members of the Pakistan Special Olympics squad have been denied their visas recently by the Greek embassy present in Islamabad. This is the first time that any Pakistani Special Olympics team has been stopped from taking part in the international
games.
Unfortunately, the Special Olympics delegation is not even being told of the reason why the visas of five of their members have not been issued. Despite the insistence of the delegation, the embassy has taken up a non-cooperative stance.
Ronak Lakhani, who is the head of the Pakistani Special Olympics delegation, made the following comments about the denial of visa: “Three athletes, namely, basketball players Ayaz Ahmed and Sabah Ilyas and badminton player Mohammad Asif Khan Ghauri along
with Global Youth Activation Summit (GYAS) team leader Sarah Alam and the contingent’s cameraman Nofil Naqvi have been refused the visas.”
This time around, the Pakistani team is taking part in a total of eight sports that include athletics, aquatics, badminton, basketball, bocce, cycling, football and table tennis. The country has been sending its delegation to the Special Olympics for a long
time now with the Special Olympics teams bringing back home numerous medals. when the games were held in China in 2007, the Special Olympics team won a total of 51 medals of which 15 were gold, 20 silver and the rest bronze.
Apart from that, it has gotten the honour being the torch bearer at the event in the Special Olympics World Games in Athens. Out of the 185 countries being represented by their delegations in Athens, it was Pakistan’s Farah Vohra who carried the torch for
all to see.
Vohra, from the city of Karachi, is a swimmer and is participating in the 25-metre backstroke as well as the 25-metre freestyle.
The honour of being selected as the torch bearer has numbed the pain of coming to Athens without their five team members but the loss is still being felt. According to Ronak, the delegation has no substitute who will be able to photograph and shoot the Pakistani
Special Olympics team as it gets ready to prepare for the big event. Also, there will be no footage to send back home when the Special Olympics team performs in the competitions.
Having stated her concerns, Ronak also stated that the Greek embassy is right in taking full security measures while handing out visas but the decision to stop five Pakistani Special Olympics team members from going to Athens is disappointing.
The first time that the Special Olympic Games were held was in 1968 and took place in the United States. Since then, it been held after every four years. It is an international sporting event for people with intellectual disabilities to make their lives
more meaningful.
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