LAHORE: Punjab government postponed on Sunday its plan to gather some 200,000 students for attempting a world record of reciting national anthem and waving national flag on the lawns of Punjab University.
The ceremony was abruptly postponed when most of the administrative and security arrangements for holding the event had been finalised.
Sources told Dawn the government had to face embarrassment of postponing the mega event on such a short notice because of specific terror threat against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who was expected to attend the function where hundreds of thousands of students, teachers, volunteers and key government officials had to be also present.
They said the authorities concerned also apprehended that the number of students required to set the record might not reach the venue because of insufficient arrangements by the Punjab Sports Board (PSB) and parents’ reservations with regard to sending their wards there for the whole day amid terror threat.
They said the provincial administration, police and the PSB had been busy making arrangements for the event for the last one and half weeks under special instructions by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and a considerable chunk of Rs7 billion allocation for the Punjab Youth Festival 2014 had been spent.
Sources said the chief secretary in a high-level meeting held on Saturday had expressed his dissatisfaction over the arrangements made by the PSB.
A statement issued by Punjab minister for education, sports and tourism Rana Mashhood said the ceremony to set world record for reciting national anthem and waving national flag had been postponed due to lack of space for accommodating more than 400,000 people who had got themselves registered for the event.
The minister said a large number of people were still contacting the PSB as they considered it an honour to participate in the ceremony.
He said the government was also mindful of the fact that gathering such a large number of people at a venue that was close to three major hospitals might create hurdles in traffic flow and problems for patients.
He said a new larger site and the date for event would soon be announced.
The minister while talking to a local news channel claimed the event had to be postponed because of incomplete arrangements and avoid public inconvenience and not because of any security threat.
A police source privy to the development told Dawn that they (police) received the directive to postpone the event in the evening when security and traffic arrangements were almost final, while a security rehearsal had already been done on Sunday.
He said some 12,000 policemen and 1,000 traffic wardens were part of security and traffic arrangements and 50 reserves from other districts were also called to the Lahore for guarding the event.
The source said the PSB had placed 200,000 chairs, bamboos, music instruments, national flags and related material had been placed on the venue in addition to spending millions on media advertisement, stickers, transportation of students, meals etc.
He said according to the plan, up to 200,000 children from 158 public and private educational institutes of Lahore, Sheikhupura, Kasur and Nankana had to reach the venue at 6am and leave it around 8pm.
The students were provided uniform, shoes and transportation facility (4,000 buses) at government expense and they had to be served meals on the venue.
The source said the Punjab chief secretary and IG separately held special meetings regarding arrangements of the ceremony while the other officials concerned also held marathon meetings in the last two days.
Another police source said besides the security threat, the PSB also learnt that most of the parents were reluctant to send their children to school on Monday to avoid the risk.
“I asked my son to take a leave from college on Monday to avid the ceremony solely because of security threat,” said a resident of Samanabad.
