PTF president Salim Saifullah to appeal to the ITF
The Pakistan Tennis Federation in its appeal against ITF’s decision of shifting the Pakistan-India Davis Cup tie from Islamabad to a neutral venue, will put across the case of Indians visiting Pakistan for pilgrimage.
“Every year, many Sikhs come here [to Pakistan]. A large number of Indian Sikhs are all set to visit the country for celebrating the 550th birthday anniversary of the founder of Sikhism, Baba Guru Nanak in the next few days. Considering this, why a 10-member Davis Cup team comprising players and officials is reluctant to visit Pakistan,” Salim said.
The ITF’s decision to shift the venue of the much-awaited Davis Cup tie is highly disappointing according to Salim, who filed the appeal with the ITF. The ITF was suppose to check 4 reasons for shifting the Tie to a neutral venue - war, climate disaster, terrorism and political unrest. “But currently none of these reasons can be applied on Pakistan as we are a peaceful country and have been regularly holding international sports events,” he said.
“Though we were not given any specific reasons [for the venue shift], tense relations between the countries after the Aug 5 inhumane act of India could be a major reason. [Moreover] the ongoing Azadi March of JUI-F maybe provided them an [added] excuse to shift the venue,” Salim said and added that in democracies across the globe political parties stage rallies protests but sports events are held as per routine.”
Salim ended by saying, “Though we were not given any specific reasons [for the venue shift], tense relations between the countries after the Aug 5 inhumane act of India could be a major reason. [Moreover] the ongoing Azadi March of JUI-F maybe provided them an [added] excuse to shift the venue.”
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2JYcgii
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