Pakistan pulls out of 19th Asian Squash Championship due to visa issues

PSF has claimed that all the documents regarding the application for visas were submitted as early as March 17

What’s the story

Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) has decided to withdraw its participation from the 19^th Asian Squash Championship which started today in Chennai due to refusal of visas. Secretary of PSF, Tahir Sultan, blamed the Indian authorities, saying the visa approval was delayed because they didn’t want Pakistan to play in the tournament.

"We have always said that there should be no politics in sports, but apparently India has its own policy. The refusal of visas is unacceptable since the Asian Senior Individual Championship is not an Indian event but a regional one," Mr Sultan said. 

PSF Secretary also revealed that the Indian High Commission had asked them to submit their passports again on Monday. However, he added that they decided not to resubmit the passports and instead opt out of the tournament.

"After returning our passports, they (Indian High Commission) contacted us and asked us to submit the passports again for the issuance of visas, but we have now decided not to apply again," he added. 

In case you didn’t know...

The Asian Squash Championship will be played from April 26 to 30 in Chennai, for which Pakistan had named a four-player strong team of Farhan Mehboob, Farhan Zaman, Tayyab Aslam and Waqar Mehboob. 

The heart of the matter

In the aftermath of the withdrawal, PSF has claimed that all the documents regarding the application for visas were submitted as early as March 17. 

Apparently, Pakistan sports ministry is taking the matter seriously and have rallied their concerns to Indian diplomats. Moreover, complaints have been filed by the PSF with the World and Asian squash bodies regarding the issue.

Parallels from history

Earlier last year, Pakistan’s men junior hockey team was not allowed to take part in the Junior Hockey World Cup, which was played in Lucknow. The reason for them being replaced by Malaysia was that they failed to apply visa for players and officials before the official deadline.

However, the Pakistan Hockey governing body denied International Hockey Federation’s (FIH) claims, saying they had applied for visas “long back”.

Author’s Take

Pakistan have yet again resorted to playing the blame game, like they did after the Junior Hockey World Cup debacle. Despite Indian High Commission’s request of submitting the passports again, they decided not to do so and instead, opted out of the tournament.

As far as India are concerned, British Junior Open Champion Velavan Senthilkumar won the first match of the tourney earlier today and will hopefully carry his form throughout the tournament.