ISLAMABAD-The annual general council meeting of Rawalpindi Islamabad Sports Journalists Association (RISJA) was held under the chair of its president Mohsin Ali here at the Pakistan Sports Complex media centre on Friday.

The meeting was attended by 24 members, while 16 members gave their consent on telephone, as they were at the funeral of senior member Awais Yousafzai’s father, who died a day earlier. The meeting first recited the Holy Quran and then prayed for the departed souls of Awais’ father and Mohsin’s father-in-law.

The meeting unanimously adopted a resolution against disrespectful and unacceptable behaviour of PCB media department in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) against RISJA members Faisal Sahi and Asif Khan, who, despite having valid accreditation cards, were first left hours stranded outside Dubai Stadium by Raza and Emmad Hameed, who were busy in accommodating their near and dear ones and didn’t have time to perform their official duties.

The meeting demanded PSL chairman Najam Sethi to launch an inquiry into the incident and a strict action must be taken against those, who deliberately wasted precious time of the senior sports journalists. It was also decided to send letters and emails to PCB chairman and Prime Minister, while Senate and National Assembly’s standing committee on IPC should also be informed about the incident.

The journalists of Rawalpindi and Islamabad are always ignored, so it was also decided that in case Sethi and Shaharyar failed to take action against the responsible persons, all the PCB events in the twin cities will not only boycotted, but also both the PCB high ups would be intercepted during standing committee meetings.

When contacted in this regard, PCB media director Amjed Bhatti promised to look into the matter and assured his all-out support to RISJA. He also promised to travel to Islamabad and meet with sports journalists to address all their genuine concerns. When he was told to issue accreditation cards of those RISJA members, who fulfill all requirements, he promised to help them out and assured that from next time around, no such incident would be repeated.

When contacted PCB governing board member Shakil Shaikh, he regretted over the situation and promised to take up the issue at the highest level. “I am not going to tolerate such things, as I am also a journalist and my best wishes are always with my community. I regret that and will take up this issue in next board meeting and ensure sports journalists of twin cities will be given equal and just treatment next time around.”