KARACHI: The Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Federation (PBSF) has come a long way and will complete four decades with the staging of Jubilee Insurance 40th National Snooker Championship which cues off at Hotel Movenpick Arcade on Saturday.

The country’s premier snooker spectacle will see 45 cueists – top 16 featuring in the latest rankings, six qualifiers apiece from Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, four from Balochistan, two from Islamabad, four juniors and one wild card vying for the top honours.

The PBSF president Alamgir Shaikh spelt out details at a press conference held at Karachi Gymkhana on Tuesday. Also present on the occasion were Jubilee Insurance managing director Tahir Ahmed and the PBSF secretary Munawwar Hussain Shaikh.

The four juniors who have earned the right to play alongside seniors includes national junior champion Mohammad Faheem, runner-up Abdul Raheem and losing semi-finalists Amir Tariq and M.Nauman Iqbal.

Former international Babar Masih, who has slipped to 25th spot in the national rankings, has been given wild card by the PBSF.

The PBSF president said he has received a cheque of Rs500,000 from the Pakistan Sports Board on account of Mohammad Asif’s prize money for winning the world title in the Bulgarian city of Sofia in 2012, which speaks of government’s apathy.

The official said he has submitted a proposal to the ministry of Inter-provincial Coordination (IPC) for revising notification of honouring country’s gold, silver and bronze medal winners in global events.

Jubilee Insurance’s Tahir Ahmed presented cheques of Rs10,000 apiece to 11 cueists who represented the country at the last year’s Asian team event and 6-Red snooker championship held in the city.

As a step to motivate the players, he also announced that if any one wins the national title three times in-a-row, he will be rewarded a cash prize of Rs300,000 and the running trophy that was displayed on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2015

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