KARACHI, Feb 23: Top seed Khurram Agha (KPT) who rose to dizzying heights by claiming his maiden national title last year will start the defence of his crown when the 32nd National Snooker Championship gets into action at Karachi Gymkhana from March 1.

Appearance of bespectacled Farhan Mirza, a former national champion, after a layoff, will be the added attraction of the annual event which carries Rs204,000 prize money.

Farhan, who represented the country at the last year’s Doha Asian Games, has returned from Sweden and will represent his home province Punjab.

Khurram, a former Pakistan No 1, who beat Imran Shehzad 6-3 to lift the crown heads group ‘A’ according to the pools released by the Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Association (PBSA) on Friday.

Fifty six cueists have been equally drawn in eight groups and top two from each will qualify for the knock out stage. Curtain falls on the two-week championship on March 14.

Veteran Mohammad Yousuf who had 14 National titles under his belt is drawn in group ‘B’ alongside Farhan. He is fit like a fiddle and ended his two-year title jinx in June last year by capturing Style ranking cup. In addition, the former world amateur champion again did the country proud by winning the Masters title at the world championship in the year gone by.

Third seed Naveen Perwani, winner of Latif Masters last year, has been placed in group ‘C’ while fourth seed Imran Shehzad is in group ‘D’.

Groups:

‘A’: Khurram Agha (Sindh), Irfan R. Khan (Sindh), Bal No 2, Jawed Ansari (Sindh), Nauman Awan (NWFP), Bilal Ahmed (Pun) and Mohammad Riaz (Sindh).

‘B’: Mohammad Yousuf (Sindh), Imran Qamar (Pun), Arshad Siddiq (NWFP), Mohammad Afzal (Pun), Bal No 6, Asim Ghani (Sindh) and Farhan Mirza (Pun).

‘C’: Naveen Perwani (Sindh), M. Imtiaz Tipu (Pun), Shahid Shafiq (Pun), Asad Pervaiz (NWFP), Abdul Sattar (Sindh), Bal No 7 and Abdul Jalil (NWFP).

‘D’: Imran Shehzad (Pun), Saqib Butt (Pun), Kashif Khan (Sindh), Bal No 3, Awais Honey (Pun), Shah Khan (NWFP) and Mohammad Ali Zaidi (Sindh).

‘E’: Rambel Gul (NWFP), Syed Mesam Zaidi (Sindh), Bal No 1, Sunil S. Shahani (Sindh), Amanullah (NWFP), Mohammad Shahid (Pun) and Atif Mughal (Pun).

‘F’: Sohail Shehzad (Sindh), Raees Khan (Pun), Sharjeel Mahmood (NWFP), Shehram Changezi (Pun), Bal No 5, Mohsin Raza (Sindh) and Amar (NWFP).

‘G’: Mohammad Asif (Pun), Vishan Gir (Sindh), Mohammad Nazeer (Pun), Ziaur Rehman (NWFP), Qasim Kamani (Sindh), Bal No 8 and Naseem Paracha (Sindh).

‘H’: Salman Shaikh (Sindh), Abu Saim (Pun), Farrukh Usman (Sindh), Bal No 4, Shafiq (Pun), Hameedullah (NWFP) and Kamran Razzak (Sindh).