ISLAMABAD - Danish/Riffat won the 1st Community Empowerment Mixed Doubles Squash Championship for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) of North Waziristan, after thrashing Farhan Zaman/Muqaddas 2-0 in the final played here at Mushaf Mir Squash Complex on Friday.
While Nasir Iqbal won the exhibition match against brother of Maria Toor, Babrak Khan in a one-sided affair. Canadian High Commissioner in Pakistan Greg Giokas graced the occasion as chief guest.
In the mixed doubles final, Danish/Riffat had to dig deep to win the first game 11-9, but second game was a one-way traffic as Danish/Riffat prove too good for Farhan/Muqaddas who had no answer to the power and speed of Danish/Riffat who raced onto take the game and thus won the inaugural doubles title. In the exhibition match, Babarak started on a brighter note and took 3-0 lead, but Nasir then bounced back and went on to take 11 straight points to win the one-game final 11-3.
It was a well-written script for self promotion as despite making tall claims of donating 30 rackets to poor kids, only six rackets were distributed and that too among the blue-eyed kids, while IDP kids were handed over one pair of shoes and a shopping bag. Where did the huge sponsorship amount disappear? When Pakistan's top squash male and female players were very much available then why Babarak was selected for such a boring encounter?
Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) chief, as usual, was busy in self-praise and photo session and no one bothered to check sound system as no one could hear even a single word said by stage secretary Sikander Mayo, who looked very puzzled and finding it really difficult to communicate. Situation got worst when the chief guest was invited to say a few words, journalists and others despite trying their level best could not hear a single word.
When PSF secretary Amir Nawaz was approached to address the journalists concerns, he used very harsh words and completely ignored all the requests. Rawalpindi Islamabad Sports Journalists Association (RISJA) was left with no other option but to boycott the function. RISJA president Mohsin Ali has requested PSF president Air Chief Marshal Tahir Rafique Butt to take notice of the secretary's unsupportive and ill-mannered behavior. “We always lend a very helping hand to the PSF whenever they request the sports journalists, but when it comes to provision of information to them, the PSF always turns its back on journalists.”
The PSF just wants to hide its weaknesses as it doesn’t want journalists to unearth factual position and neutral perspective. If things continue in this fashion and the PSF secretary doesn't change his behavior, then RISJA will be left with no other option but to completely boycott the PSF future events,” the RISJA chief concluded.