12 January 2004	Monday	19 Ziqa'ad 1424

ISLAMABAD, Jan 11: The Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) has decided to forfeit the voting rights of its affiliated units not organising at least one national tournament in a calendar year.

President of PTF, Syed Dilawar Abbas told Dawn on Sunday following the federation's Annual General Meeting that if the units do not hold tournaments, they have no right to exploit their position at the time of elections.

"If the affiliated members do not adhere to this decision for two years running, their membership would be cancelled," Dilawar said. The meeting, held at the Islamabad Club, also adopted the newly amended constitution while approving the accounts.

Dilawar said that the provinces of Punjab, Sindh and NWFP had offered to host one leg each of the satellite circuit, hopefully this year while Karachi will also stage two ITF junior tournaments.

The house decided to have ITF White Badge umpires supervise national ranking tournaments in order to improve the standard of officiating. It was also announced that in future, categories for juniors in national tournaments will be U-11, U-13, U-15 and U-17 so that teams could be prepared for the higher age groups in international competitions.

Meanwhile, Wasif Cheema and Shahzad Khan, the top juniors are to join the Davis Cup training camp in Karachi. The two will compete against Nomi Qamar and Jalil Khan to earn the right to represent Pakistan at next month's tie against Thailand. Aqeel Khan and Aisamul Haq are exempt from trials.