April 8, 2014
LAHORE: Just days after Pakistan's Punjab government claimed to have set 32 world records, the Guinness World Records has said the judges who observed the record breaking event were not part of its team.
Guinness World Records has said the judges who observed the record breaking event in Punjab were not part of its team.
April 8, 2014
LAHORE: Just days after Pakistan's Punjab government claimed to have set 32 world records, the Guinness World Records has said the judges who observed the record breaking event were not part of its team.
Guinness World Records has said the judges who observed the record breaking event in Punjab were not part of its team.
In the recently concluded Punjab Youth Festival 2014, the Shahbaz Sharif government claimed to have made 32 new world records.
During the festival, the government had given wide publicity to Anatonela Maria Oreja from Spain and Danial from England, who were promoted as the 'representatives of the Guinness Book of World Record'.
However, the management of the Guinness World Records has denied that it had entered into agreement with Pakistan's Punjab government to partner in the Youth Festival and to send its representatives.
Amarilis Whitty, public relations director Guinness World Records, said in an email: "I would like to confirm that we have not partnered with the Sports Board Punjab and we do not have representatives of the names you mention below. Those people are not associated to GWR and we did not adjudicate those events in Pakistan."
"However I can confirm we did provide Sports Board Punjab with remote adjudication service which means our judges are not at the events but we provided them with videos for their events and quick verification of their evidence".
A copy of the email is available with the PTI. The opposition party PPP has also alleged massive corruption in the Punjab Youth Festival and has called for a judicial inquiry.
"A sum of Rs 500 million had been paid to the elements in the Guinness Book of World Record for registration of the records to be set in the festival," PPP member Punjab Assembly Faiza Malik told PTI.
"The Guinness authorities as saying that they had not sent any of its staff to certify the records. How smartly the PML-N government is fooling the people," she said.
Countering the allegations, the Punjab government on Tuesday denied any foul play in the Punjab Youth Festival 2014 saying the Guinness Book of World Record had "authenticated" the records made during the event.
"We will take the private news channel to court for broadcasting misleading news. All 32 records made during the event have duly been authenticated and recorded by the GWR," Punjab Sports minister Rana Mashhood Khan told a press conference here.
Accompanied by Punjab Sports director General Usman Unswer, the minister said so far some 4.8 million Pakistanis had taken part in the festival.
Although the minister did not show any GWR authentication on its website during the news conference he said: "You can see GWR statement on their official website."
Replying a question about two foreign representatives of GWR, he said they were "witnesses" to the records.
Courtesy: PTI
