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KARACHI: Pakistan’s gold-medal winning squash player at the 16th Asian Games, Aamir Atlas Khan has said he will continue his fight for the development of the game in the country even after falling foul of squash authorities.
Khan, who openly criticized the operations of the Pakistan Squash Federation, was severely reprimanded and barred by the Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) from using any of its facilities throughout the country.
But the highly-talented, straight-talking player says his comments should have only been taken as constructive criticism and termed his punishment as a bit too harsh.
“I respect this present PSF setup and I never spoke against it. I also respected the decision of the federation when they brought in Jansher Khan as the head coach for the junior players. However, I don’t understand why all these restrictions were put on me by the federation,” the top national player told PPI.
“If I stay idle than my form will be affected. I have been performing well and I also played a pivotal role in Pakistan's gold winning run in Asian Games. We won the gold after 12 years and I think that that was a big achievement for the country. I also won silver in individual event. I represent not myself but my country in international events and if I win, then the victory brings good name not only to me but also to Pakistan, the federation and even to Jansher Khan, who is my uncle,” Khan said.
Khan said that Jansher had undermined Pakistan’s achievement at the Asian Games by calling it a low-profile tournament.
“So in the heat of the movement, I retaliated. I think if I trespassed the code of conduct of the federation then Jansher has also been equally responsible,” he said of his legendary uncle.
He further said that he would be meeting Sports Minister Aijaz Hussain Jhakrani on Tuesday and other officials of the federation would also attend the meeting and he hopes that all would be settled.
