KARACHI, June 19: While Pakistan will be fielding an 11-member outfit with at least five underachievers in the inaugural Asian Junior boxing championship which starts on Monday, India’s participation hangs in the balance because of visa delay.

Organizers said on Sunday neither India had refused to participate nor were they denied visas and added their participation was doubtful since they were yet to be issued visas by Pakistani authorities.

“India have not been denied visas. But they have still not been issued visas by Pakistan. We have requested Pakistan Sports Board which forwarded the names to the ministry of sports and now the matter is lying with interior ministry,” said organizing secretary Shakeel Durrani.

India would be accommodated in the draw if they were granted visas on Sunday or early Monday before the draw to be held at 11.00am. “In case India are not issued visas before draw, then unfortunately they will miss the championship.”

While India’s absence will take some gloss off the championship, Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF), like the past, has once again fielded its favourites, ignoring the deserving boxers.

PBF had announced before national junior championship organized in May that best boxers would be selected to form the national team for the Asian championship. Setting aside its own criteria for selection, PBF chose five pugilists who failed to deliver during the national event.

For instance, Mohammad Nisar, who lost to Zubair in light-flyweight quarterfinals has been selected, while gold medallist Khaliq Mahmood has been sidelined.

Aneel Hussain, the flyweight winner, has been overlooked and the bantamweight bronze medallist Bilal Ghazi has been accommodated in flyweight category. Lightweight silver medallist Sajjad Qambrani will be fielded as featherweight, preferring over featherweight gold medal winner Abdul Rauf.

Middleweight bronze medallist Nadir Khan will fight as light-heavyweight, while Yasir Jawaid has been ignored, although he was light-heavyweight champion.

Interestingly, there was no super-heavyweight category in the national championship, but Mir Waiz has been selected in the same weight division, although he never participated in the national contest.

Shakeel said seven teams including Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Syria, Jordan, Iran, Uzbekistan and Sri Lanka had arrived. He claimed 21 out of 46 countries had confirmed participation in the championship for the boxers between 17 and 19 years of age.

“Indonesia have regretted as their boxers are busy in their examinations,” he said.