ISLAMABAD – Negligence from Pakistan Tennis Federation Secretary Mumtaz Yousaf costs Pakistani tennis stars Aqeel Khan and Ahmed Chaudhry dearly as both were deprived of a chance to represent Pakistan at the Asian Invitational Tennis Championship scheduled to be held from Dec 3-8 in Bangkok, revealed an inside source to this scribe on condition of anonymity on Tuesday.
The source said that both Aqeel and Ahmed Ch were granted direct entries in the main round of the event, where around 15 to 16 top Asian countries were participating, and Pakistani players deprived the right of playing in the event because of slackness from the PTF secretary Mumtaz.
The source said, despite repeated attempts made by Col Sharma, Asian Tennis Federation's Thailand based official to contact PTF Secretary in this regard but his all efforts went in vain as Mumtaz Yousaf didn't bother to attend the call, Col Sharma then tried another former office-bearer of PTF to seek his help and resolve the visa issue, but that official who on condition of not to be mentioned his name confirmed that he was contacted and said that he tried to contact Secretary, but he didn't respond to my call.
PTF Secretary is living in Quetta and was hardly seen in the capital during the last 2 years or so. He was not attended the ITF/PTF 10-day Level-I coaching course conducted by the coaches from Iran and Sri Lanka here at Senator Dilawar Abbas PTF Tennis Complex.
Who is to be blame for such a careless attitude of the secretary who has no interest in tennis and federation affairs. PTF President Syed Kaleem Imam must get explanation from secretary and the guilty should be brought to book for this negligence and make sure such things not to repeat in future.
The source said that if Aqeel and Ahmed could have still participated in the event had Pakistani captain was present at the captains meeting held in Bangkok. The captain could have rearranged the matches of both players by Tuesday but no Pakistani was present in the meeting. The time is high PTF President must hire a full-time secretary to run the federation’s affairs smoothly as there was hardly any major national tennis championship was played in the last 7 months or so.