LAHORE: The Pakistan squad is still waiting for a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the government to participate in the Asian U-18 Baseball Championship starting in Chinese Taipei on Monday.

The national squad was originally scheduled to leave for Chinese Taipei Friday night. However, despite having valid visas, air tickets and full arrangements made by the event host Baseball Federation of Asia (BFA), the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) has not yet given its go-ahead to the national team to fly to Chinese Taipei for competing in the continental event under Islamabad’s One-China policy over a highly contentious political status of Chinese Taipei, which is called Taiwan and is officially known as Republic of China (ROC).

Taiwan is claimed by the PRC, which refuses to establish diplomatic relations with countries that recognise the ROC.

The Pakistan government refused to issue an NOC to the Pakistan Volleyball Federation (PVF) for participation in an Asian event held in Chinese Taipei earlier this year. As a result, the PVF faced a fine of $20,000 from its Asian chapter. Interestingly, China also participated in that event.

“We have also played in Chinese Taipei in the recent past. This time, however, the PSB refused and referred us to get permission from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” Pakistan Federation Baseball (PFB) secretary Fakhar Shah said while talking to Dawn on Saturday.

“We are still waiting for the NOC to fly out [to Chinese Taipei] while six players of Pakistan origin, living in the US, Canada and Japan are travelling directly to the host country,” he added.

“In fact it is not in our control to allocate any event to any country; it is the decision of the international bodies, which first announce the event and after getting confirmation from the participating countries announce the venues

“From Islamabad 12 players and two officials were [scheduled] to fly to Chinese Taipei on Friday’s night. Our Japanese coach is also in Chinese Taipei, hoping the Pakistan team will get the government permission [to compete in the event],” Fakhar stated.

“We also contacted an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs through a common friend, who got a NOC from the said ministry. But when we submitted that [NOC letter] issued by the foreign ministry to the Inter-provincial Coordination (IPC) ministry, it said that the document was fake. We have also registered a case against the person who handed us the [foreign ministry] letter,” the PFB official maintained.

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2024