LAHORE, June 13: World No 17, Shahid Zaman is the top seed of the PTCL international squash championship starting with the pre-qualification round at the Punjab Squash Complex here from Wednesday. Shahid will start his campaign with opening match against compatriot Arshad Iqbal Burki, the world No. 54.

Six foreign and as many Pakistani players are in the main draw of the contest, carrying a total cash prizes of US$ 25,000.

Six foreign players are world No. 19, Mohammad Azlan Iskandar of Malaysia, Wael El Hindi of Egypt (23), Alex Gough of Wales (25), Mohammed Essam A Hafiz of Egypt (35), Liam Kenny of Ireland (43) and Stephane Galifi of France (46).

Besides Shahid, the other Pakistani players who qualified for the main draw are Mansoor Zaman (30), Shamsul Islam Khan (47), Yasir Butt (53), Arshad Iqbal Burki (54) and Khiyal Muhammad (wild card entry, 104).

In the two-day pre-qualifying round, 32 players will compete and top four finishers will move to the qualifying round to join 12 players, making it 16-man contest.

The pre-qualification round will be held on Wednesday and Thursday while the qualifying round on June 17 and 18. The matches of main draw will start from June 19 and the finals will be played on June 22. A senior official of the PTCL Ali Qadir handed over a cheque of Rs 1.5 million to the Punjab Squash Association president Lt. Gen. Zarar Azeem in a special function held at a local hotel on Monday.

Karamat Ullah Chaudhary is named as the tournament director while Muhammad Rafiq Shahid is appointed as tournament secretary. Tahir Khanzada is the tournament referee.

Twelve Pakistani players in the qualifying round are Majid Khan (55), Farrukh Zaman (64), Aamir Atlas Khan (88), Khalid Atlas Khan (98), Khawaja Adil Maqbool (102), Safeerullah Khan (108), Amjad Khan (143), Bilal Zaman (186), Naveed Atlas Khan (189), Basit Ashfaq (213), Ibrahim Gul (270), Mubashir Gul (286).

APP adds: Lt General, Zarrar Azim, President, Punjab Squash Association on Monday said the work on the under construction squash complex near national hockey stadium could not be started due to various reasons.

“We tried to take up the project many times but time and again various hurdles were created by different departments involved in the project,” he told reporters here.

The work on a modern squash complex was started way back in 1991 and the construction work was halted mid way with its structure reaching walls since then it is in the same old condition.

“Our responsibility is to promote squash by initiating programmes for talent hunt and its grooming and we have successfully done it in the previous years and we will continue our efforts to produce promising players to fill the gap at international level,” he maintained.