ISLAMABAD - All the good work done by Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) senior vice president Air Vice Marshal Razi Nawab of taking $15,000 PSA tournament from World Squash Federation after a gap of eight years was spoiled by Pakistan Air Force Director Sports Group Captain Shahid Nadeem.
The main aim of organising this event at the worst terror-hit city of Peshawar was to give a very clear message to international community that Pakistan is safe for all kinds of sporting activities and no matter how badly the city had suffered at the hands of these handful terrorists, people turned up in quite numbers to watch their favourite sons in action during the recently-concluded CAS Open International Squash Championship at the historic Hashim Khan Squash Complex.
Instead of accepting this reality and worked for making this event a huge success by inviting media persons for extensive coverage, Shahid didn’t even bothered to invite local journalists for the entire event, which is indeed a grave crime by all means. As it was the time when world should have been sent this message of peace and love from the Peshawar residents through media, but the simple trick was missed by the arrogant and rude director Sports PAF.
He first denied invitations to journalists and when some of them did manage to reach the venue, they were not allowed to enter the premises to perform their official duties. What purpose may serve to PAF, federation and players by holding an event behind closed doors? The selection of venue was also questionable as hardly 70 persons including chief guests, players and spectators could be accommodated in the premises.
Despite reaching the venue with utmost difficulty and going through a number of check posts setup by the PAF due to the sensitive nature of the area, director sports didn’t allow journalists to enter the arena and cover the event. There could have been total black out of the event if SVP Razi Nawab not invited few journalists from Islamabad and on his personal interference two to three local journalists also managed to get access to the venue.
The PSF in the past always make satisfactory arrangements for the journalists as they are fully aware of their importance for this cause and they can’t spread the message without the active support of the sports journalists. The PSF had never missed opportunity to telecast semifinals and final live on national broadcaster but the situation was totally different in Peshawar as director sports was busy in self-promotion and appeasing the bosses instead of making necessary arrangements to cover this mega event.
The same guy didn’t even spare guests journalists from Islamabad and treated them very roughly and even misbehaved with them who reached there on the special request of Razi Nawab, but they ignored all his bad intentions and continued to perform their official duties.
Meanwhile talking to this scribe former world squash champion Qamar Zaman apologisd to the journalists and assured them the case would be taken to high ups and an action would be taken against the culprit. Qamar said same guy in the past had also misbehaved with him and also banned him from entering the premises of the squash courts. “If a person like me who had given everything to the country and won laurels at international level is not spare from the wrath of director sports, then no body is safe from humiliation at his hands.”
Qamar said this guy doesn’t even spare Farhan Zaman, the wonder kid of Pakistan squash, on which country had pinned high hopes, and treats him like an alien. “What would be the future of Pakistan squash if Farhan, who is getting fed-up with each passing day, decides to leave the country just like others and opted to represent other country of his desire? Who would be responsible for such a damaging loss inflicted by one person’s fault? There were a lot of complaints ever since this gentleman has taken over the helm of affairs as director sports. He had rendered below dignity treatment to number of players in the past too and journalists also had lot of complaints against him but he always managed to get away with this and comes out more strong and poses like he is above the institution and nobody could dare to teach him a lesson.”
Meanwhile when this correspondent contacted a very high profile person in Pakistan Air Force and seek his comments on the prevailing situation, the person on condition of anonymity has confirmed that this guy was on number of occasions had given strict warnings to change his unwanted and totally unacceptable behavior. “But despite getting several warnings, I had to agree he is continuing with his same old habits.” The high profile personality has also apologised to journalists and all the others who had suffered at the hands of director sports and promised to make amends and take up the issue at the very highest level.
It is pertinent to mention here that Peshawar is the land of eight world squash champions, a feat no other part of the world has even come closer. It was the ideal time to tell the world about this historic place and that could have only been done through the active help of media.
It is the time PAF must seek detailed explanation from the said guy and ensure a proper person should be handed over responsibilities of such important portfolio, who could handle the situation accordingly and capable enough to run the affairs smoothly. That is the reason PAF, who had representation in almost all the sporting fields is fast on decline as non-professional persons can’t take institutions to heights but could inflict a damage which could take years to mend.