Jahangir lashes out at PSF

After squash body allege WSF president purposely delayed visas.

KARACHI:

Former world number one and the emeritus president of the World Squash Federation (WSF) Jahangir Khan has criticised the Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) for blaming the WSF president N Ramachandran over Pakistan’s withdrawal from the World Junior Championship due to the delay in visa issuance.

PSF Secretary Irfan Asghar has alleged that the WSF president delayed the issuance of documents purposely because he is an Indian and therefore does not want Pakistan to participate in the event.

However, Khan, who had also served as the WSF president in 2002, said that it is not Ramachandran’s job to delay or issue the documents for the participating junior players. Khan added that the WSF headquarters are in the UK which employs local staff who process and respond to such routine affairs.

“The PSF is just blaming others for their own short-comings,” Khan told The Express Tribune. “The WSF have got nothing to do with this. The PSF didn’t send the visa applications on time. They are well aware that any European country takes at least a month to issue visas.

“The PSF president, who is also the air chief marshal, could have easily resolved the issue. All he had to do was call the Belgian embassy. Blaming Ramachandran for Pakistan’s withdrawal is wrong.”

Danish Atlas and Nasir Iqbal were seeded third and fourth at the championship that is featuring 15 other countries.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14^th, 2011.