Ex-baseball chief remembered on first death anniversary

Khawar Shah: The man who took Pakistan baseball to world heights

By Sarfraz Ahmad

LAHORE: The first death anniversary of former president Pakistan Federation Baseball was held the other day (January 20). It is also the time to recall his long-standing services to Pakistan baseball.

It was way back in 1990 when late Khawar Shah, then Divisional Sports Officer Gujranwala with passion for baseball, started dreaming to see this game (baseball) flourish in Pakistan.

The determined Shah then dedicated his life for promoting and development of baseball in the country. Then with the help of his friends all over Pakistan, a baseball federation was founded with Shah having the key role as secretary of the body with Gujranwala as its headquarters.

However there were also a number of hurdles in Shah’ way as there were two more baseball federations working in the country, though none was working properly nor recognised by POA or PSB. One was federation was headed by Ejaz Yousuf with headquarters at Quetta and the other one had Fareedullah Malik, then federal minister, as its president and Imtiaz Aasi as its secretary with Islamabad as its headquarters.

As Khawar Shah was a determined and dynamic person, who never gave up, was able to first unify his federation with Fareedullah Malik’s federation. Farhat Siddiqui, a former national badminton player and father of Test cricketers Imran Farhat and Humayun Farhat played a major role in the merger of the two bodies. Khushnood Lashari became the first president of Pakistan Baseball Federation, with Khawar Shah as secretary. Sometime later Quetta-based body also joined hands with shah’s federation. As such Khawar shah’s first mission of only one representative baseball federation was accomplished. It was not all over for baseball-mad Khawar Shah He then started organising national baseball championships first of which was held at Gujranwala Stadium in which Islamabad baseball team among others was also represented by former Pakistan cricketers Azhar Mahmood and Irfan Bhatti.

Although there may be many who sided with Shah in achieving his another goal, that being baseball federation’s affiliation with PSB and POA, as for I remember former IG Police Punjab Shaukat Javed, now chairman Pakistan Federation Baseball (PFB) is the man who played key role in this regard. Along with Shah he had always been in forefront to see baseball flourish and see Pakistan flag flying high in the world.

It may be recalled here that later during his association with Pakistan Federation Baseball (PFB) in one capacity or the other Khawar Shah organised many national and international baseball tournaments as a result of which Pakistan players got a lot of international exposure and Pakistan team performed exceedingly well during international events. All this helped Pakistan achieve 5th place in Asian baseball rankings and 25th in world rankings. Though shah was more inclined towards baseball he also had pssion for other sports too.

During his tenure as DSO Rawalpindi he extended all out sports to the then Rawalpindi Division Cricket Association, headed by Prof Ishtiaq Hussain Shah in promoting cricket in the region. Shah was also among the organisers of 1996 cricket World Cup matches in Rawalpindi.

Later as MD and DG Sports Board Punjab Shah remained instrumental in promoting sports in Punjab. Moreover he initiated Ch Zahur Elahi Kabaddi Tournament and was chief organiser of baseball between Pakistan Sri Lanka.

The credit of organising Pakistan-India dangals in Gujranawal, Lahore and Faisalabad in the past, no doubt goes to Khawar Shah. The present Pakistan baseball chief Fakhar Shah, elder son of Khawar Shah, perhaps, inherits all the qualities of his father to lead PFB from the front. I think he was trained well by his father in this regard.