India shouldn’t host events, demands Pak

The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Sports has advised Pakistan’s top sports authorities and federations to collectively launch a campaign to stop India from being given hosting rights for international events.

The committee observed that in recent months, India had been trying to isolate Pakistani sportspersons by depriving them a chance to compete in international events. Pakistan’s Wrestling Federation and Squash Federation had recently claimed that their national teams were denied visa by the Indian High Commission for continental events.

A top lawmaker of the government, Mushadullah Khan, who heads the committee, noted at a hearing today in Islamabad that by refusing visas to Pakistani sports teams for international events in India, the Indian authorities have exposed themselves. “We need to collectively launch a campaign to make the world aware that international sporting events should not be given to India because they are mixing sports with politics,” Mushadullah said.

He was addressing the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board Shaharyar Khan, who appeared before the committee for a hearing on cricket affairs.

Khan informed the committee members that the PCB had finally decided to stop accepting BCCI’s tactics to damage Pakistan cricket. “We have sent the BCCI a Notice of Dispute under the Dispute Resolution Committee Terms of Reference of the ICC as they have repeatedly breached the agreement executed between PCB and BCCI in respect of the Future Tour Programme for the period 2015-2023,” Khan said.

He said that the PCB had in its notice made it clear that it had suffered losses of around $60 million for every series that India had refused to play with it.