KARACHI The torch lightening ceremony of the 13th Sindh Games will be held on June 14 afternoon on the steps of the Mazar-e-Quaid, said the chairman of the games opening ceremony Zahid Rizvi. He said a selected group of 35 runners will carry the torch six-and-a-half miles away to the National Coaching Centre where Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad will formally open the three-day games, He said that the torch would be lit by solar power on the steps of the grand marble mausoleum. Expertise of the PCSIR would be availed to light the torch, he added. He disclosed that some of the torches used in the second SA Games have been retrieved and would be used in the relay ceremony. One of the minister of the Sindh cabinet will be the guest of honour at the ceremony. Former international athlete Imran Khan would be the first person to carry the torch and later the selected 35 runners, including eight girls, will carry the flame on a pre-determined route to the venue of the opening ceremony. Four international runners would run the last lap of the tartan track with the torch before handing it over to former international hurdler and athletics coach Muhammad Talib who would hand over it over his former student Naseem Hamid, the Dhaka SA Games gold medallist who will finally lit the cauldron which will remain burning till the end of the Games on June 16 evening. He said that all the arrangements of the opening ceremony have been finalised and a dress rehearsal would be held on Sunday afternoon. The opening ceremony, he said, had been designed on the Olympics pattern. The Sindh governor, on his arrival at the venue, would be taken to the main podium on a stroller drawn by horses. The arrival of the chief guest would be heralded by buglers of Sindh Police and Rangers. The bands of these two institutions would play national and martial tunes to make the ceremony attractive. The contingents of five regions marching past the main podium would enter the main arena. They would remain there and would take oath of the games. Among other colorful items of the opening ceremony would be a cultural programme and floats, releasing of pigeons and colourful balloons in the air and display of fireworks. He said that thousands of the participants belonging to five regions attired in graceful tracksuit would attend the ceremony.