LAHORE, Aug 1: Pakistan will field its karate team for the first time in the eighth Asian karate championship, which will be held at Seremban, Malaysia, from Aug 20 to 27. The Pakistan Karate Federation secretary Mohammad Jahangir said Pakistan would send six players and one coach for the event.

The players who have been picked up for the event are: Agha Mohammad, Ghulam Ali, Shaukat Ali, Saadi Abbas, Adil Jan and Mohammad Ramzan.

Jahangir will accompany the team as manager and Ahmed Safi as coach.

The secretary said the Pakistan team was in Iran at present on a three-week training-cum-competition tour, which would help them achieve better results in the Asian championship.

He added the Asian Karate Federation would also be holding a referee course in Malaysia for which Pakistan has selected three referees namely Bashir Butt, Nasim Qureshi and Farman Ahmed.

Jahangir concluded that the national ranking tournament, planned for this month, would be held next month due to floods and heavy rains in Sindh and Balochistan.