Every News: India asked not to involve politics in sports

India asked not to involve politics in sports
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POA chief backs IOC decision on shooting issueBy Abdul Mohi ShahISLAMABAD: As the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has pulled out selected shooting qualification slot from World Cup under way in India, Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) president Lt Gen (rtd) Arif Hasan asked Indians not to involve politics in sports as it contradicts Olympic Charter in letter and spirit.Talking to The News on IOC decision, the POA president said Friday the decision was taken in accordance with IOC Charter. “If you are organising Olympic Qualifier or any international event of a repute it is must for to the country to honour its commitments of arranging visas to the competing teams and individuals. Indian has faltered on that. Despite many reminders, Indian Olympic Committee and their Consulate in Islamabad had failed to issue visas to the shooters who were drawn to compete in the event. What the IOC has done is very much according to the requirements of its IOC Charter.”The 2019 International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) World Cup is the Annual edition of the ISSF World Cup series that will also act as qualifying tournament for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and is scheduled from 20-28 February, 2019 at New Delhi, India. Sixteen quota places for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games were being contested for. Ghulam Mustafa Bashir and M Khalil Akhtar, were to contest in the category of 25m Rapid Fire Pistol and were part of the team for whom the visas had been applied for, from the Indian Consulate in Pakistan.Despite the fact that the National Rifle Association of Pakistan (NRAP) had completed all the formalities well in time (more than sixty days in advance as stipulated in the policy/instructions), till 21 Feb 2019 they had not been issued the visa. Later in the day it has been learnt that their passports have been returned without the issuance of the visa. The IOC policy is very clear on the allocation of international sports events and the rights of the athletes to compete without any discrimination. This has, as recently as Dec 2018, been reiterated by the IOC in its communiqué of the 7th Olympic Summit of 8 Dec 2018:-Lt Gen (rtd) Arif Hasan hoped that sanity would prevail and the South Asian Games that are to be held in Nepal this year would go ahead according to the plan. “I have no doubts in my mind that the Games would go ahead according to plan. The South Asian Committee that meets at the sidelines of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) meeting in Thailand in early March would finalise the Dates of the Games. I hope that sports would be kept separate from politics.”