ISLAMABAD: Profes­sional Squash Association (PSA), the game’s international governing body, in a ridiculous demand has asked the Pakistan Squash Feder­ation (PSF) to submit a security fee of $5000 for each of the international level tournament to be held in Pak­istan in the future, Dawn has learnt.

This recent and absurd move by the PSA has come as a huge discouragement for the players as well as the sponsors while putting the future of the game in the country in jeopardy.

It may be mentioned here that security threat has almost completely subsided in Pakistan since the past two years or so and the atmosphere is totally conducive for sporting as well as other international events, many of which have already been successfully been held in the country in the past few years that include cricket series against the West Indies, a World XI, Sri Lanka as well as international squash championships, Davis Cup tennis ties, skiing and snooker events etc in which hundreds of foreign players participated.

Pakistan has a rich squash history and the country has produced dozens of world champions over the past four decades including Roshan Khan, Jahangir Khan, Jansher Khan, Qamar Zaman, Mohibullah Khan, Gogi Alauddin and many other.

Although the country has seen a decline in the game’s fortunes over the past decade or so, the PSA has made tremendous efforts to revive the game in the recent years in order to regain the lost glories and organised no less than 16 international tournaments for both men and women in all major cities of Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi.

Sources said that most of these events were financed by various corporate sponsors and were highly successful with no untoward incident happening.

It is worth a mention here that as desired by the Professional Squash Association (PSA) — the world squash body — security surveys were also conducted during six the six tournaments events for which around US dollars 34,000 were charged by PSA as security fee just last year.

It is, however, beyond comprehension as to why the PSA is still insisting on charging the steep security fee for allocating further international tournaments which has indeed come as a huge disappointment and shock for the sponsors as well as squash players in Pakistan.

Sources said that if the PSA could allow international tournament to be staged in Israel and Egypt, it has no justification to put absurd conditions on Pakistan in the name of security issue. The sources further said that PSA is insisting for getting security fee on the basis of travel advisory.

It has also been learnt that former world champion Jansher Khan has requested PSA not to charge PSF for security as Pakistan is now a completely safe country for sporting events. “Just when international squash is making a comeback in Pakistan, the PSA move has hit the scene which is very discouraging for the sponsors who have come forward to support the game,” argued Jansher.

“After hearing about this PSA fee of $5000, the sponsors are obviously backtracking which is really sorry to see. The PSA move will put a negative impact on Pakistan squash,” he lamented.

Published in Dawn, February 2nd, 2019