PM Imran Khan attends Beijing Winter Olympics inaugural ceremony

BEIJING (92 News) – Prime Minister Imran Khan along with a high-level delegation attended the inaugural ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics on Friday.

Heads of 20 countries, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, attended the colourful ceremony. During the event, contingent of all participating countries marched the stadium with their national flags.

The Pakistan contingent comprising of an athlete and four officials marched the stadium with the national flag.

AFP adds: The opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics began. The lattice-shaped "Bird's Nest" stadium took centre stage, just as it did at the 2008 Games -- seen as China's coming-out party on the world stage -- as Beijing becomes the first city to host both a Summer and Winter Olympics.

The United States, Britain, Canada and Australia are among countries staging a diplomatic boycott of the Games over China's rights record, particularly the fate of the Muslim Uyghur minority in Xinjiang.

Their athletes will still compete at the Games, which run until February 20 and are taking place inside a vast "closed loop" designed to thwart the virus.

Some spectators will be present at the opening ceremony at the 90,000-capacity "Bird's Nest" but it is unclear how many and, like sports events at the Games, tickets were not sold to the general public because of the pandemic.

The show is the mastermind of acclaimed Chinese film director Zhang Yimou, who was behind the 2008 extravaganza.