Ismail going places with Armenian flag

KARACHI: Ismail Rauf, a young squash player from Peshawar, has got work permit in Armenia and he has been playing there which will help him improve his international ranking.
Ismail has been given work permit by Armenia to represent it in European and international squash circuit. “He is getting more tournaments to play, especially in Europe, due to this,” said Ismail’s father Mr Rauf while talking to this scribe.
“This is the reason he has improved his international ranking recently,” he said.
Rauf added that Ismail had been trying to get that opportunity for the past few years and was now happy to represent Armenia. “Ismail is allowed to use Armenian flag under this work permit. He is happy that due to this he is easily playing in European squash circuit,” added Rauf.
He said his son had no problem with Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF). In fact, the federation always supported him, he added. Ismail achieved his career-best ranking of 219 this month. He had started the year at 470th position. He had been playing PSA events since July 2012 but had not made much progress, so he decided to get work permit from Armenia.
Ismail has recently appeared in two international junior events held in Qatar under the Armenian flag. Now he is playing in Germany and after that he will go to play Malaysian Squash Tour in Malaysia and then appear in CNS International Squash championship and FMC International in Pakistan.
After that, he will play Inno Wood Open, Sekisui Open, and Pilatus Cup in Switzerland; and Kent Open in England.