PSF sticks to confusing age policy

KARACHI: Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) has been allowing overage players to compete at international junior events while debarring them from appearing in national junior events.
‘The News’ has learnt that the federation did not allow seven players to play in under-19 category in the ongoing 1ST SNGPL Championship in Lahore for being overage although some of them had been playing international junior events and had good rankings at the Asian level.
The players who have been denied participation are Sikander Khan from Sindh; Israr Ahmed, Kashif Asif, Awais Ahmed, and Dawar Shahid from Punjab; and Attaullah Shah and Sajid Khan from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The overage players enter their names in international junior events on the basis of their date of birth registered on their passports — which are false.
According to sources, the PSF declared Sikandar Khan overage as he had 10-2-1996 as his date of birth for the said national event. The date of birth according to his passport is 15-1-1998. He is ranked 108th in Asia.
Israr Ahmed was barred from taking part in the event because his date of birth is 16-11-1995, but he is ranked 19th in Asia thanks to 7-7-1996 written on his passport as date of birth.
Israr recently played two junior championships in Qatar where he won the title in under-19 category in Qatar Open and stood third in Doha Open.
Kashif Asif is another player from Punjab who was not allowed to play in the said event in Lahore for being overage, having 3-12-1995 as his date of birth. But he featured in the twin events in Qatar this month in the under-17 category. He won titles in both the events.
Ataullah Shah, Dawar Shahid and Sajid Khan having 10-10-1993 as their date of birth were also denied participation.
“This is an approved policy of our Executive Committee,” PSF secretary Amir Nawaz said. He added that the federation — through age scrutiny campaign — had achieved results regarding the age issues of junior players.
But he failed to explain why the overage players were allowed to feature in international events.