Snooker body promised a hall at PSB centre

KARACHI: The Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) has been promised the allocation of a hall for setting up snooker academy at the PSB Karachi Centre besides the release of the cash award for Hamza Akbar.

Alamgir Anwar Shaikh. President, PBSA, who returned to the city after a series of meetings with the top officials of the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) in Islamabad over the past three days, said he was happy with the response he got. “The Federal Sports Minister, Riaz Hussain Pirzada, during our meeting, issued directives to immediately release Hamza Akbar’s long pending cash award of Rs1.5 million for winning the Asian Championship 2015 in Malaysia. He also ordered the allocation of a suitable hall to the PBSA for setting up a snooker academy at the Pakistan Sports Board’s (PSB) Karachi Centre,” Alamgir Shaikh revealed to ‘The News’ here on Sunday.

The PBSA president also held formal meetings with the newly appointed senior officials at the Ministry of IPC, including secretary Raja Mohammad Nadir, deputy secretary Fayyaz-ul-Haq, and joint secretary Hussain Ahmed Madni and briefed them on the performance and achievements of the association and the cueists.

The snooker chief of the country also had lengthy sessions with high-ranking officials of the PSB, including director general Dr Akhtar Nawaz Ganjera, director general national federations Azam Dar and deputy director general Syed Habib Shah.

“The matters relating to the appointment of a foreign coach were on top of the agenda in meetings with the PSB officials. They have given their consent to the PBSA for hiring Soheil Vahedi from Iran,” Alamgir disclosed.

“Accordingly, as a part of the PBSA Coaching Programme, it has now been mutually decided to hold a 15-day training and coaching camp for Pakistan’s top cueists at the PSB Complex in Islamabad under the supervision of Soheil Vahedi next month,” the PBSA president said.