PSA affiliation with PSB remains uncertain

ISLAMABAD: Despite bringing several laurels to the country, Pakistan Scrabble Association (PSA) could not manage to convince Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) for its affiliation to make it a more vibrant body.

Talking to APP, PSA Director Youth Programme Tariq Pervez said he had contacted Pakistan Sports Board officials multiple times for an affiliation but they have been using delaying tactics for some vested interests.

He said his meeting with the former Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) Minister Riaz Hussain Pirzada and former PSB Director General Dr Akhtar Nawaz Ganjera could not bear fruits for the affiliation and it seems to be nobody’s baby.

“I am not giving up and will also be meeting with Inter-Provincial Coordination Minister Dr Fehmida Mirza in the coming days to seek her help in this regard,” he said.

While mentioning the association’s achievements, he said our five players won the World Championship in different categories of the Junior World Scrabble Championship played at Nottingham, England, in August 2017. The champions included Ahad Riaz (under-18), Sohaib Sanaullah (under-16) and Hamza Naeem (under-14).

“Imaad Ali and Monis Khan also retained their titles in under-12 and under-10 categories,” he said, and added that scrabble has brought more world titles to Pakistan than any other sport.

Highlighting more achievements of the team, Tariq said World Youth Scrabble Championship 2013’s title was also on its credit roll.

“Moiz Baig as an individual clinched the World Youth champion and Javeria Mirza was the runner-up in the same event.

“It was the first time in history that a winner and runner-up were from the same country,” he said.

He said Pakistan also managed to secure WYSC 2014 at Colombo (Sri Lanka) in which Mariam Arif and Abdullah Abbasi bagged third and seventh positions respectively.

“Hammad Hadi was the winner while Moiz Baig was the runner-up in the Princess Cup International Youth tournament at Bangkok, Thailand, in 2017,” he said. Despite contacting PSB Director National Sports Federations multiple times, he did not respond to the call.

He said the Pakistan Sports Board must consider over the years performance of the association and turning a deaf ear to its cause was against national interests.