Asian Individual Squash Championship

Pakistan contingent denied Indian visa

KARACHI: Pakistan will be unable to participate in the 19th Asian Individual Squash Championship starting from Wednesday (tomorrow) in Chennai after failing to receive Indian visas.

An official of Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) told ‘The News’ that they were waiting to receive visas till Monday but the Indian authorities did not issue them any, hence they cannot participate in the event.

“Tomorrow, there is an official meeting of managers of the participating countries, and the championship is starting from Wednesday, so it is almost impossible to reach there even if they issue us visas at the last moment,” said the official.

Earlier, Secretary PSF Tahir Sultan stated that they had applied for the visas quite early.Pakistan’s squash contingent, comprising four players, a coach (Fahim Gul) and the manager (Mehboob Khan), were to go to India.

According to the PSF, in order to ensure Pakistan’s representation, top two players of the country, Farhan Mehboob and Farhan Zaman, were directly selected whereas trials were conducted from March 9–12 for the selection of the other two. Waqar Mehboob and Tayyab Aslam were also shortlisted for the championship.

Meanwhile, an Indian daily quoted the patron of the Squash Rackets Federations of India (SRFI) N Ramachandran, rendering Pakistani claims as baseless.

“It is a very sensitive issue and I don’t want to comment on what they [Pakistan] have alleged. All I can say is that we had given them the required permission. We had sought permission from the ministry of external affairs and ministry of home affairs and everything from our side was very transparent. We definitely want them to come here and put up a good performance,” he said.