India - Pakistan Diplomatic Ties

Pakistan yet to pay its share for South Asian University campus construction: MEA

PTI | January 5, 2020 7:35:26 PM

Under package three, 61 per cent work was completed till September 30, 2019 and the construction of rest of the buildings under package 4 is yet to be completed as several issues related to acquisition and legalities are pending, it said.
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The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) member nations had agreed to bear the operational cost of the construction of the SAU campus with a predetermined share of contribution.(Pic : Construction design overlay of the SAU)

Pakistan is yet to pay its share of USD 5.10 lakh for the construction of the South Asian University (SAU) campus here, the Ministry of External Affairs has said in a written response submitted to a parliamentary committee.

A report by the parliamentary committee said that from 2010 to 2014, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal and Sri lanka made their contribution in the operational cost of the first phase of construction of the varsity campus. “Pakistan is yet to pay its share of USD 510,436,” the report mentioned.

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Pic : SAU Campus hostels under construction.

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) member nations had agreed to bear the operational cost of the construction of the SAU campus with a predetermined share of contribution.

According to the parliamentary report, the Government of India had notified 100 acre land for the SAU in Delhi’s Maidan Garhi area in 2009, of which 93.68 acre was allotted for construction in September 2011. The MEA has the proprietary right to this land, it said.

The construction of the varsity campus in 4 packages began in 2015. The construction of its boundary wall and office was completed under package one, the report said.

In package two, five buildings were to be constructed in the campus and work on four of these was completed by September 30, 2019, it said.

The ongoing construction of a residential block in the SAU campus will only be completed by February 2020 as the work got delayed by 19 months due to legal hurdles, the report said.

Under package three, 61 per cent work was completed till September 30, 2019 and the construction of rest of the buildings under package 4 is yet to be completed as several issues related to acquisition and legalities are pending, it said.

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Pic : SAU Academic buildings under construction.

The MEA told the committee that the delay in the project was mainly due to land encroachment, court cases, and a few objections from Delhi Jal Board, Municipal Corporation and Delhi Pollution Control Committee.

The parliamentary committee has asked the Union government to resolve the issues hindering the construction work.

According to the report, due to slow pace of the construction work and deduction in the operational cost, the allocation estimate was reduced to Rs 246 crore. The committee also expressed hope on the project, saying it believes the remaining work will be completed in a time bound manner.

Pakistan yet to pay its share for South Asian University campus construction: MEA
 
Imran Khan hits his own wicket

Pakistan’s PM was arm-twisted by the Saudis to not attend the summit of Islamic countries in Malaysia, a meeting that was Imran’s idea

Published: 07th January 2020 04:00 AM
By Karamatullah K Ghori
Former Pakistani diplomat
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In the game of cricket there are many ways in which a batsman can get out. However, everyone feels sorry when a batsman gets out inadvertently hitting his own wicket while attempting to play a shot.

Imran Khan of Pakistan made his debut as his country’s leader with a sterling reputation garnered in his career as a cricketer. All his fans expected the Kaptan (Captain)—the sobriquet his admirers affectionately use for him—to make waves, earn laurels and carve new records in his new vocation, just as he had excelled in cricket. However, Imran recently hit his own wicket and Pakistanis—friends and foes of his—are agog: Why did he do it?

An important conclave of leaders of several Islamic countries was held recently in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Billed as the KL Summit, it brought together under one roof, among other notables, President Recep Erdogan of Turkey, President Hassan Rouhani of Iran and Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia, the host of the gathering.

But the leader most conspicuous by his absence was Imran. The Pakistani prime minister begged himself off from attending the meeting, without providing a logical reason for his last-minute no-show. What’s galling to most—especially to the host of the meeting—is the fact that the conference was the brainchild of Imran, and he becomes guilty of not owning his own invention. It was on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly’s annual session last September in New York that he met Erdogan and Mahathir and the three of them came up with the idea of pooling the collectives efforts of like-minded Islamic states for promoting a better image of Islam—their common faith and identity.

Among the three proponents of the idea, Imran was seen as ‘more equal than others’ because he had just delivered a strong message to the world audience—in his straight-from-the-heart address from the UNGA podium—to drop their pre-conceived notions of Islam being a religion or faith that
promotes terrorism. Imran had made a passionate appeal to non-Muslims to shirk their ‘Islamophobia’ and rethink Islam.

Imran found receptive listeners among Muslim leaders like Erdogan and Mahathir, who shared his vision that it was their responsibility to promote and sell a healthier image of Islam. The idea of the KL Summit, bringing together thinkers, authors, social scientists, social activists, et al., from across the spectrum of the Islamic world, was germinated right there in New York among these three leaders. Mahathir offered to play host to what the leaders thought would be a watershed, a new groundbreaking assembly of Muslim intellectuals and policy thinkers.

Punditry that followed the birth of what was hailed as a noble initiative noted that all three promoters of it happened to be non-Arabs and shared a wealth of ideas on how to revive the Muslim world as a collective and dynamic force in the 21st century. There was consensus among pundits that this non-Arab initiative was an idea whose time had come, largely because the Arab world had failed to provide a path to the Islamic ummah on how to resuscitate itself. There was lamentation all around that the existing collective body, the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC), had failed, miserably, to be a beacon to the Islamic world.

OIC, conceived and born in the wake of the arson attempt back in 1969 at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem—the third holiest shrine for Muslims—has done nothing spectacular in its half a century of being there. It’s as good as a dodo, a paralysed body that does precious little beyond assembling pompous Muslim leaders under its umbrella for routine, inane meetings and issuing communiques that hardly merit any notice.

OIC has been rendered dysfunctional and moribund by the Saudis who largely bankroll it and want it to play a second fiddle to their foreign policy. Instead of working for unity of the ummah, Saudi Arabia has become its divider and spoiler—its incursion and ill-fated adventure in Yemen being ample evidence of its nihilistic role.

But then, the Saudis leaned on their ‘brother’ Imran to sabotage his attendance at KL Summit. The Saudis and the Emiratis in the UAE took fright that the KL conclave was going to become a parallel body to their subservient OIC. They couldn’t exert pressure on the leaders of Iran, Turkey and Malaysia. But Pakistan is indebted to them. Their largesse bailed out Pakistan from its economic misery. Imran is personally beholden to them.

So Imran was summoned to Riyadh for an ‘audience’ with Saudi Arabia’s de facto monarch, the incorrigible MBS. Upon his return from there it was announced that Pakistan would not be attending the KL Summit. The risible explanation for Imran shooting himself in the foot was that Pakistan wanted to be “neutral” and work as “a bridge” to unite Islam-ic countries.The message between the lines was that the ‘brave’ Kaptan had wilted, succumbed to Saudi arm-twisting and didn’t mind hitting his
own wicket. Never mind the egg on his face, it’s all between ‘brothers’.

Imran Khan hits his own wicket
 
Hell and ice water: Glacier melt threatens Pakistan's future

By Maulik Vyas, AFP | Updated: Jan 10, 2020, 03.33 PM IST

Climate change is causing most glaciers worldwide to shrink, but due to a meteorological anomaly this is one of a few in the Karakoram mountain range in northern Pakistan that are surging. This means hundreds of tonnes of ice and debris are pushing down the valley at ten times the normal rate or more, threatening the safety of the people and homes below.
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Hundreds of tonnes of ice and debris are pushing down the valley at ten times the normal rate or more, threatening the safety of the people and homes below.

SHISPER GLACIER: The villagers of Hassanabad live in constant fear. Above them the vast Shisper glacier dominates the landscape: A river of jagged black ice moving towards them at as much as four metres per day.

Climate change is causing most glaciers worldwide to shrink, but due to a meteorological anomaly this is one of a few in the Karakoram mountain range in northern Pakistan that are surging.

This means hundreds of tonnes of ice and debris are pushing down the valley at ten times the normal rate or more, threatening the safety of the people and homes below.

"People's lives, properties and animals are in danger," warns villager Basir Ali.

Flash floods caused by glacial lakes, ice and rock falls, and a lack of clean and accessible water are all serious risks for those close to its path.
"When a glacial lake bursts there is an enormous amount of not only ice, water and debris that falls through, but also mud and this has devastating effects, it basically destroys everything that comes in its way," said Ignacio Artaza of UNDP Pakistan.

But repercussions of the Shisper glacier surge extend far beyond its path: The mighty Indus River is reliant on seasonal melt for more than half of its flow and changes in Pakistan's ice fields affect this.

That has implications not just for those living in its basin, but for the whole nation, which relies on it for much of its food. Shifting water levels also have implications for the fragile relationship between nuclear-armed neighbours Pakistan and India.

Already ranked among the planet's most water-stressed nations according to the World Resources Institute, both need the Indus and its tributaries.

Their access to the water is governed by the 1960 Indus Water Treaty, which aims for fair usage. But there have long been fears India, which sits upstream, could weaponise the resource, it has threatened more than once to restrict Pakistan's access -- including just last year.

Millions in danger

The Karakoram, which contains some of the world's tallest mountains including K2, is just one of the mountain ranges that criss-cross the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region.

Sometimes called The Third Pole, the region holds more ice than anywhere other than the Artic or Antartica. But a third of the glaciers here are expected to melt by 2100, endangering the lives of hundreds of millions, according to this year's Hindu Kush-Himalaya Assessment Report.

Rising in Tibet, the Indus crosses through India and Pakistan fed by a multitude of tributaries before it reaches the Arabian Sea. The waterway's basin produces 90 percent of Pakistan's food, according to the UN, and agriculture is dependent on irrigation from the river, which heavily relies on meltwater from the ice sheets.

With its surging population experts warn the nation faces "absolute water scarcity" by 2025, with the loss of the Himalayan glaciers a key threat.
While scientists cite climate change and topography, it's not clear exactly what causes the Karakoram anomaly where glaciers are surging and in some cases growing.

But many say these changes will also impact the Indus because they alter meltwater patterns, causing flash flooding or water shortages that are difficult to predict and manage.

"The Shisper glacier is increasing its length and width, furthermore it is also moving downhill," explained Shehzad Baig of the Gilgit-Baltistan Disaster Management Authority.

He warned climate change meant there was heavier snowfall during the winters and warmer temperatures in the summers, leading to the ice mass producing more meltwater, swelling the Hunza River, a churning mountain tributary of the Indus.

"This may cause harm to the local community and deprive the people of the Indus basin blocking or disturbing drinking water and irrigation channels," Baig warned, adding that changing weather patterns were also creating more glacial lakes.

Water wars

The UNDP estimates that more than 3,000 glacial lakes have been formed in the region, with 33 posing an imminent threat of 'outburst floods', known as GLOFs, that could impact as many as seven million people.

Last year the surging Shisper glacier effectively dammed a meltwater stream from a neighbouring glacier creating a large lake. Authorites were forced to issue safety warnings to Hassanabad and local villages before the water was drained.

But satellite data shows the lake is already reforming, leaving residents fearing not only the progression of the crushing ice sheet but that they will be swept to their deaths in flash floods.

"This whole area will be devastated...the whole population and people's properties will go into river," cautions villager Didar Karim.
Professor Andreas Kaab from the University of Oslo says Pakistan must adapt its "monitoring and response strategies, and risk management in general" to contend with both surging and shrinking glaciers.

Authorities, working with the UN, are setting up early warning systems using sensors positioned on top of the Shisper glacier and downstream to alert communities.

But the challenge for Pakistan extends beyond crisis management to the long-term water conservation and storage, experts say. "Pakistan has to increase its water storage capacity which is now 33 days -- it should be at least 100 days to ensure sustainable development," cautions Dr. Ghulam Rasul of the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development. He estimates that 60 percent of water is currently lost as run-off to the sea.

With few functioning resevoirs the nation is ill-equipped to harness the short-term excess water as climate change causes more glaciers to melt, or from the increasingly erratic monsoon deluges.

And by 2050, with so much of the ice sheets lost scientists say the flow of the Indus will dramatically decrease, leaving Pakistanis more vulnerable than ever.

Rasul says: "Water is the capital of agrarian economies and guarantees food and energy security. Shortage of water against increasing demand could lead to conflict."

Hell and ice water: Glacier melt threatens Pakistan's future
 
screambowl said:
Still, India is not getting POK
unless until India send military.
Ram bhajan kar ke POK nahi milega
Click to expand...

You lack ingenuity

Just pack up all the leftist , Islamists in jnu's Jadavpur etc and as a further guarantor include momota , pappu , khejriwal , shushu tharoor , cupta , randdeep desai , rohul kanwul , kanayai etc and airdrop them over por........

Por...... will come begging to give us POK
 
hellbent said:
You lack ingenuity

Just pack up all the leftist , Islamists in jnu's Jadavpur etc and as a further guarantor include momota , pappu , khejriwal , shushu tharoor , cupta , randdeep desai , rohul kanwul , kanayai etc and airdrop them over por........

Por...... will come begging to give us POK
Click to expand...



Sir, the lefits muslims are those muslims who were once in Muslim league or follow the idea of two nation theory now they have disguised themselves as leftists and infiltrated into CPI/M. You will find more kashmiris in left party and muslims from westbengal/kerala as well. They are proxy of Pakistan. You can't contain them with existing set of rules in the Indian constitution.

There is only one thing to do, prepare the rest 80% for worst and climb on POK. How you prepare the people. The economical benefits are huge and that's what you hsve to tell the people in India. It should have been done by now. So that by next 3 years govt could stabilize itself.

Now these BJPians contradict themselves. First they said they will reach 5 trillion economy mark then they said they will take POK. They are both contradictory to eachother in a span of 4 years time.

1) You can either take POK or you can become 5 trillion dollar economy. Both can't happen together. But yes, you take POK, recover from loss for next 3 years and then work towards making India 5 trillion by expanding economy and trade to central Asia

2) Or you become 5 trillion economy and then take POK. ( when is India going to be 5 trillion economy only God knows.)

But we should also remember the value of time.
 
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Reining In Pakistan: Thinking Beyond Military Options

Aashish Chandorkar and Anirudh Limaye
January 20, 2020

“Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.” —Sun Tzu on the ‘Art of War’ (III.2)

MUMBAI: India’s relations with Pakistan have been frosty for the last many years. When India isn’t actually fighting the Pakistani strategy of death by a thousand cuts to India, there are routine border skirmishes, perception wars and narrative propaganda to deal with.

Pakistan has been fighting asymmetric battles with India for many years. The Indian posture has traditionally been defensive. Except in the last few years, when India has militarily punished Pakistan for its misadventures, even the conventional defence options had been an anathema. But there is a range of other, non-military options, which can also be deployed.

These options all arise from the fact that Pakistan is a “jelly state” to quote veteran journalist MJ Akbar. On the various dimensions that Pakistan is unstable, the most notable is the economic one. The Pakistani economy, despite the headline gross domestic product (GDP) growth, has been beset with several issues, many of these structural. Understanding these challenges can help India devise economic counters to Pakistan to hollow it out.

Despite low living standards, the private consumption in Pakistan is 82 per cent of its GDP. It has been the same for the last three years. The Gross Fixed Capital Formation as a percentage of the GDP, an indicator of investor confidence in the future, is down from 14.8 per cent in FY 2004 to 13.8 per cent in FY 2019. Normally, the central bank should reduce interest rates to spur investments in such a case. But the Pakistani State Bank (PSB) benchmark rates are now over 13 per cent. These rates are necessitated to arrest the downfall of Pakistani Rupee (PKR) and attract remittances, a key ingredient of the country’s forex reserves.

However, despite this high rate of borrowing, inflation in Pakistan has been intractable. In the last financial year, inflation has been well over 6 per cent, even touching 12 per cent at times. Despite the remittances flowing in and interest rates at multi-year highs, PKR has slid 50 per cent against the United States Dollar (USD) over the last five years. This increases the cost of foreign borrowing for Pakistan, which is already at 32 per cent of the GDP. Pakistan’s external debt is more than four times its forex reserves and debt servicing outflow accounts for 14 per cent of Pakistan’s foreign exchange earnings (up from 8.5 per cent in 2016) . In the next few years, if the PKR continues to fall and growth remains anaemic, servicing the foreign debt might well become unsustainable.

Low growth, high inflation, sliding currency, high cost of internal borrowing and unsustainable external borrowings. What can India do to leverage if not hasten this perfect storm?

Imposing High Cost Of External Borrowing

Pakistan’s external debt was around PKR 12 trillion or about $81 billion at the end of September 2019. Of these about $6-7 billion was in the form of Euro/Sukuk global bonds, some of which (over US $3 bn) are listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.

India should explore the feasibility of using our own financial institutions to increase borrowing costs for Pakistan on these bourses, which in turn will have a trickle impact on its other commercial borrowings. This can be done by a combination of shorting Pakistani bonds on these bourses, and/ or buying credit default swaps on these bonds in a time targeted manner, focusing around the borrowing schedule of Pakistan. As the bond prices fall, the yields will rise, making it tougher for the country to borrow afresh.

To cover for the rising cost of borrowing, Pakistan will have to deploy its foreign exchange reserves, which are already depleting but for the remittances it gets. It will also push Pakistan to increasingly depend on bail-outs from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and U.A.E., countries that are facing dynamic geopolitical pressures of their own.

India is currently sitting on its highest foreign exchange reserves ever, so using some of these reserves for a financial engineering operation may not be that big a problem.

Targeting The Pakistani Textile Industry

Pakistan’s goods exports in the last financial year were $23 billion, of which $13 billion or 58 per cent of the total came just from the textiles industry. This industry is not just export-intensive; it also creates bulk jobs—a low-cost manufacturing leverage, which even India has been trying to tap into.

Of the textile exports from Pakistan, 97 per cent are from the basic cotton textile area. The country hasn’t upgraded itself in a big way in synthetic or woollen textiles businesses. India is already focusing on developing textiles as a key growth sector for our own economy.

With flexible labour laws, tax holidays, social security subsidies and a general exports thrust, India can easily weaponise its own textiles capability to target Pakistani exports. Our textile exports are already in the $35 billion range annually. Specific targeting of large buyers of Pakistani exports and taking away just 25-30 per cent of Pakistani exports can destabilise Pakistan’s biggest foreign exchange earning sourcing. On the contrary, this value will be under 10 per cent of India’s textile exports, so creating additional capacity rapidly is not going to be a challenge.

Technology Play In Saudi Arabia and the UAE

Nearly 45 per cent of its robust $22 billion remittances—currently the most important reason why Pakistani economy hasn’t collapsed—comes from Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Unlike other Asian nationalities, where there is a continuum of workforce skills, Pakistanis are more likely to be engaged in lower-end manual labour more often than not. Driving and construction are two such occupations.

Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE tend to be behind the curve when it comes to using enterprise technology. India can specifically invest in industrial scale technologies and export such expertise, which can substitute labour deployment in these countries. Areas like self-driving vehicles, autonomous industrial equipment and use of drones can easily offset labour use in the heavy industries like of which are abundant in the Middle East.

Cannibalizing lower end manual jobs will most significantly hit Pakistani workforce. With the government of Pakistan in no position to invest in short-term skills upgrade or long-term education revamp, this action can precipitate a remittance crisis.

Targeting The Military-Industrial Complex

The Pakistani military is not just a fighting force but also a trading giant, much like the British East India Company. The military runs several businesses related and unrelated to defence and has over time come to become a parallel centre of economic activity in itself. As per a report presented in the Pakistani Senate in 2016, there were more than fifty commercial entities owned by the military, which were collectively worth $20 billion in value. In fact, some independent commentators estimate the army’s total stake in private businesses to be over $100 billion (around 40 per cent of Pakistan’s FY 2019 GDP).

From brands like Fauji Fertilizers to banking entities like the Askari Bank, from real estate business by the Defence Housing Authority to cement factories, the military runs a budget which is outside the Pakistani federal budget. The military has also got involved in seemingly utilitarian consumer businesses like running petrol pumps, bakeries and dairies. The Fauji brand is all pervasive in the economy.

India can identify key products of the Fauji Foundation, against which Indian exports can be dumped in major overseas markets of Pakistan. India can today afford to remain irrational longer than Pakistan can afford to remain solvent. Such export dumping can be easily subsidised by the Indian government until it makes an impact. Making a dent in the Pakistani military-industrial complex will severely impact the power armed forces enjoy in the country.

Invest In Global Lobbying

One area where India has traditionally lagged far behind Pakistan is leveraging the power of global lobbying. This is of significance given that Pakistan budgets 28 per cent of its gross federal resources for FY 2020 to come from external sources in the forms of loans and grants. Additionally, over $50 billion of its external debt outstanding in FY 2019 was through the Paris Club and various multilateral and bilateral arrangements.

From engaging the think tanks on the beltway to contributing to an ignoble December 2019 election defeat of the gullible British Labour Party over the Kashmir issue, the Pakistani propaganda machinery internationally is far more productive and effective. In July 2019, Pakistan revealed that it had hired Holland and Knight, a leading lobbying firm, to further its interests in the United States.

Even otherwise, entities like the Fai network, run by the Kashmiri moghul Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai, have been instrumental in the past in manipulating Indian opinion makers at scale. India, on the other hand, has no truck with the Pakistani intelligentsia, opinion makers or artists and this equation is not likely to change.

While India has just started to leverage its diaspora, there is a long way to go. There has to be a systematic investment in putting across Indian point of view. With conservative and nationalist politics currently in favour in many key countries, there is no better time to create international pressure on Pakistan and develop goodwill for India. We already have the right stories of past sufferings and the future potential to tell—investments are needed in packaging and in cultivating allies.

The domino impact of targeting exports, external borrowing rates and external relations will be huge. Taken together, it will cause PKR to weaken, which does impact Pakistan’s external debt servicing ability. It will also cause the Pakistan central bank to keep increasing rates which will in turn cause capital to become expensive locally, causing further structural problems due to scant capital investment. Pakistan has received a lot of inflow in its domestic debt issues because of the carry, i.e. borrow outside at low rates and then invest in Pakistan for 11 per cent. But this works only till the investor feels that the currency will not depreciate by 10 per cent. It can all unravel pretty soon if currency weakens.

India has all the reasons as well as the right capabilities to create its own version of exploding mangoes on the western front. A little imagination and investment from the government can go a long way.

(Aashish Chandorkar is a public policy analyst based in Pune. Anirudh Limaye is an investment management professional. Views expressed in this article are personal.)

Reining In Pakistan: Thinking Beyond Military Options – Strategic News Global
 
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PCB Threatens To Skip 2021 World Cup If India Does Not Visit Pakistan For Asia Cup

PCB Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Wasim Khan on Saturday said they will not send their team to India for the 2021 T20 World Cup if the BCCI won't send its team

Written By Press Trust Of India | Mumbai | Updated On: January 25, 2020 15:55 IST
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PCB Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Wasim Khan on Saturday said they will not send their team to India for the 2021 T20 World Cup if the BCCI won't send its team to Pakistan for the Asia Cup T20 in September this year. "If India doesn't come to Pakistan for the Asia Cup, we would also refuse participation in the 2021 T20 World Cup there," Khan told reporters in Lahore. The senior Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) official dismissed reports that PCB had given up Asia Cup hosting rights to BCB in exchange for Bangladesh sending its team to Pakistan.


'We will not travel to India'​
"The hosting rights have been given to us by the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) and we can't just hand them over to anyone. We don't have that authority," he said.​


Khan, however, conceded that due to issues with India currently two venues are being considered for hosting the Asia Cup. India has not toured Pakistan since 2008 while it has also not played a full Test bilateral series with Pakistan since 2007 due to strained political and diplomatic relations. Pakistan did visit India in 2012 to play a short limited-overs series. Cricket experts say the main hurdle to Pakistan hosting the Asia Cup will be whether India agrees to play in the country due to security issues.

Khan also confirmed that a security delegation from Cricket South Africa would be visiting Pakistan in February to take stock of the security situation as Pakistan has invited the Proteas for a three-match T20 series in Pakistan in March-April after the Pakistan Super League. Referring to the visit of ICC Chief Executive to Islamabad and Lahore earlier this week, Khan said PCB would try to get hosting rights of at least three ICC events between 2023 and 2031. He also said that Marylebone Cricket Club would be sending its team to Lahore to play four matches and the team would include prominent players such as Moeen Ali, Kumar Sangakara and Ravi Bopara.

https://www.republicworld.com/sport...ld-cup-if-india-does-not-visit-Pakistani.html
 
PCB welcome to host T20 Asia Cup, but India won’t play in Pakistan

January 29, 2020; by Anirudh Singh


The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has made it clear that they do not have any problem with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) hosting the T20 Asia Cup, but the Men in Blue will not participate in the tournament if it is held in Pakistan.

It’s clear with this statement that the BCCI wants the tournament to take place at a neutral venue or the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) will have to go ahead with the competition without India participating.

In the few days, there’s been a lot of speculation regarding the venue for the Asia Cup, with reports emerging that Pakistan had invited Bangladesh to play in the country by promising them hosting rights for the Asia Cup in September.

However, PCB chief executive Wasim Khan has quashed all these claims and also went on to state that Pakistan will pull out of the 2021 T20 World Cup to be held in India if the BCCI does not send their team for the Asia Cup, before backtracking later and stating that his comments were blown out of proportion and taken out of context.

Now, a BCCI official has come out and stated that the Indian team will not play in Pakistan, thereby giving the tournament a miss. The official went on to add that if India are to participate in the Asia Cup, the multi-nation tournament has to be held at a neutral venue.

“The question isn’t about the PCB hosting the tournament. It is about the venue and as things stand now, it is quite clear that we would need a neutral venue. There is no way that an Indian team can visit Pakistan to even participate in a multi-nation event like the Asia Cup,” a BCCI official told news agency IANS.

“If the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) is ok with an Asia Cup minus India then it is a different ball game. But if India is to participate in the Asia Cup, then the venue cannot be Pakistan,” the official said.

An India-Pakistan Asia Cup match at a neutral venue is not unprecedented.

“A neutral venue is always an option. BCCI did it in 2018,” the official pointed, with reference to the last edition of the tournament when the PCB had cited issues in obtaining the Indian visas for the players. The BCCI had then hosted the tournament in the UAE.

The BCCI will now be expecting the PCB and the ACC to do the same to ensure India’s participation in the tournament.

PCB welcome to host T20 Asia Cup, but India won’t play in Pakistan
 
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