Scrabble Association Affiliation With PSB Remains In Doldrums

Despite bringing several laurels to the country, Pakistan Scrabble Association (PSA) could not manage to convince Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) for its affiliation to make it a more vibrant body.

ISLAMABAD, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 11th Sep, 2018 ) :Despite bringing several laurels to the country, Pakistan Scrabble Association (PSA) could not manage to convince Pakistan sports board (PSB) for its affiliation to make it a more vibrant body.

Talking to APP, PSA Director Youth Program Tariq Pervez said he had contacted PSB officials multiple times for an affiliation but they have been using delaying tactics for some vested interests.

He said his meeting with the former Inter Provincial Coordination (IPC) Minister Riaz Hussain Pirzada and former PSB Director General Dr. Akhtar Nawaz Ganjera could not bear fruits for the affiliation and it seems to be nobody's baby.

"I am not giving up and will also be meeting with IPC Minister Dr. Fahmida Mirza in the coming days to seek her help in this regard," he said.

While mentioning the Association's achievements, he said our 5 players won the world championship in different categories of the Junior World Scrabble Championship played at Nottingham, England in August 2017.The champions included Ahad Riaz (Under-18), Sohaib Sanaullah (U-16), Hamza Naeem (U-14).

"Imaad Ali and Monis Khan also retained their titles in u-12 and u-10 categories," he said and added scrabble has brought more world titles to Pakistan than any other sport.

Highlighting more achievements of the team, Tariq said World Youth Srabble Championship 2013's tiltle was also on its credit roll. "Moiz Baig as an individual clinched the World Youth Champion and Javeria Mirza was the Runner up in the same event. It was the first time in history that a winner and runner up were from the same country," he said.

He said Pakistan also managed to secure WYSC 2014 at Colombo Sri Lanka in which Mariam Arif and Abdullah Abbasi bagged 3rd and 7th positions, respectively.

"Hammad Hadi was the winner while Moiz Baig was the runner up in the Princess Cup International Youth tournament at Bangkok, Thailand 2017," he said. Despite contacting PSB Director National Sports Federations multiple times, he did not respond to the call.

He said the PSB must consider over the years performance of the association and turning a deaf ear to its cause was against national interests.