1.5 lakh Pakistani youth will read national anthem at Iqbal Park

Lahore: Federal Minister for Information & Broadcasting Senator Pervaiz Rashid and Provincial Minister for Education and Youth Affairs Rana Mashhood Ahmed Khan visited the provincial offices of Sports Board Punjab to review the arrangements for holding Punjab Youth Festival 2014.

A meeting of senior officers of the concerned departments was also held on this occasion with regard to media projection of this youth festival at international level. Senator Pervaiz Rashid said that the credit for the successful conduct of youth festival 2012 goes to Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, Member National Aseembly Hamza Shahbaz Sharif and the Deputy Speaker Punjab Assembly at that time Rana Mashhood Ahmed Khan.

The meeting was informed that 30 lakh youth from every corner of the province participated in the youth festival 2012 through volunteers of 55200 youth development committees set up at village and street level in the province while thousands of players from other provinces had also taken part in the festival.

Moreover, teams of 26 countries had also participated in the festival. Provincial Minister for Education, Youth Affairs and Sports Punjab Rana Mashhood Ahmed informed the federal minister that the setting of 25 new Guinness World Records at the Punjab Youth Festival has got fame to this event and international organizations of 70 countries associated with sports and co-curricular activities have contacted for participating in Punjab Youth Festival 2014.

The meeting decided that national anthem was sung by 45 thousand youth at Punjab Football Stadium Lahore last year and in order to improve this record 1.5 lakh Pakistani youth will read national anthem at Iqbal Park adjacent to Minar-e-Pakistan this time while a number of other records will also be broken.

Federal Minister for Information & Broadcasting Senator Pervaiz Rashid expressed the hope that holding of Punjab Youth Festival 2014 will infuse a new spirit in the youth. He assured that federal government will extend full cooperation to Punjab government in this regard.