With the heralding of spring in the federal capital, the horse riders participating in tent pegging competition organised by the capital Development Authority (CDA) offered a scintillating ambience for viewers to enjoy the colours of ‘Jashn-e-Baharan’.
The three-day event organised by the city’s prime agency in collaboration with the different organisations was inaugurated by the Prime Minister’s Task Force Chairman on Islamabad Faisal Sakhi Butt who pledged to make this beautiful traditional game a regular feature in this region and announced to establish a permanent ground for the purpose.
The tent pegging competition in the capital city is taking place after eight years as last event of horsemanship was held in 2004. The traditional sports including kabaddi, horse race, cattle shows, and other colourful games will be held on regular basis with the support of different organisations to provide healthy sports and entertainment facilities for residents of the city. The said competition will be participated by the horsemen and teams from across the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa while colourful stalls, cultural shows, camel ride and other entertainment oriented festivities were also established during the competition. Horsemen, young and old wearing long turbans were waving their spears after successful display of tent pegging. The event includes three sessions comprising of individual riders competition, pair riders and the third showcasing four horses on the dash for pegging.
Speaking on the occasion, Faisal Sakhi Butt said that Islamabad had vast grounds and strong tradition for horsemanship but this traditional sports had been ignored in the past. He said the sports ground of international standard would be set in the capital in addition to provision of quality sports facility for these traditional games. He said Jashn-e-Baharan had commenced in the Capital and a large number of people from the surrounding areas were participating in the event. He said the environment wing of CDA had done a wonderful task by organising such a fantastic event in the capital city which would pave the way for promoting soft image of the country as a large number of foreigners like this game. He said the task force on Islamabad would revive the old traditions of the region by arranging such events on annual basis, adding he would ask the CDA to further strengthen the tourism division to regularly manage such event through constant liaison with the clubs and event holders on national levels. More than 300 horse riders will entertain visitors on this competition which would conclude tomorrow (Sunday).
CDA’s tent pegging competition mesmerises viewers
