By From Abdul Mohi Shah
A top official of the Ministry, when contacted, confirmed that no such request had been received by the Ministry in writing in recent times. “Till Wednesday no request has been received from the PCB regarding seeking the NOC from the Foreign Office for the IPL players.
“If there is anything it would be verbal and no written request has so far been received,” the official said.
All requests to the Foreign Ministry regarding sports exchanges with India are supposed to go through the Sports Ministry. “However, no such request has been forwarded by the PCB to the Ministry. So there is no question of issuing, in writing, an NOC to the players. We have to get a written request before processing and forwarding it to the Foreign Office,” he said.
The IPL organisers have set November 20 as the deadline for the Pakistani players to submit government NOCs. As the Ministry has yet to get a formal request, it is unlikely that the deadline could be met.
When this correspondent contacted PCB’s Chief Operating Officer Wasim Bari, he confirmed that the chairman, Ijaz Butt, has personally taken up the matter with some high officials in Islamabad. “It is right that we have yet to send any official request to the Ministry but on the other hand the PCB chairman has verbally taken up the matter with some high official.
The PCB chairman is due to return on Thursday and it would be after that we will get the latest on the matter,” he said.