Sports journalists flay PCB’s indifference, ask PM Abbasi to intervene

PESHAWAR:- Member of the Sports Writers Association Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Monday staged a protest demonstration against indifferent attitude of the Chairman Pakistan Cricket Board Najam Sethi and Media Manager Amjad Bhutti for ignoring them in Pakistan Super League (PSL).
The sports journalists criticized what they argued the indifferent attitude of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) towards the Sports Writers Association Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and asked the Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to intervene and address their reservations.
General Secretary Association of International Press Sports (AIPS) Amjid Aziz Malik Amjid Aziz Malik said the PCB, its incumbent Chairman Najam Sethi ignored the sports journalists of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) in the Pakistan Super League (PSL), which caused serious concerns among them.
He said Najam Sethi did not visit the province in the past five years and the sports journalists were sidelined in the PSL since its introduction in 2016.
The senior journalist said not a single journalist from the militancy-hit province was invited to the opening ceremony or any other event relating to the PSL.
He said the sports journalists of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had great services for promotion of sports and continued to perform their professional duty in a time when militancy was at its peak in the province to promote soft image of the province as well as the country at international stage.
“How the international games would back to the Peshawar when its own people at the helm of affairs such as chairman of PCB did not bother to visit KP,” he added.
President Sports Writers Association Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Jehanzeb Saddique said the PCB should give equal rights and importance to sports journalist irrespective of their class, caste and creed. “It is not fair to ignore the journalist from a federating unit where they continued to work for promotion of sports despite unfavorable conditions,” he added.
Senior sports journalist Ijaz Ahmad said that it was the right of sports journalists of KP to be given due representation in national and international level sports events. “We wanted due respect and rights like given to sports journalists of other parts of the country,” he added.
The sports journalists asked the Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who is also patron-in-chief of PCB, to take note of the ‘step motherly attitude’ meted out by the incumbent PCB management towards the KP sports journalists and to remove the sense of deprivation among them