From the Daily Times:

Two Pakistani squash players denied Ireland visa

By Zulfiqar Ghuman

ISLAMABAD: Two more Pakistani squash players were denied visa to take part in the $15,000 Irish Open Championship to be played in Dublin, Ireland from April 13 to 16, it was learnt here on Tuesday.

The players are World Junior Championship finalist Yasir Butt and Arshed Iqbal Burki. Yasir and Burki are at number 52 and 53 in the Professional Squash Association (PSA) rankings and have participated in international competitions. Both are among top five of Pakistan behind Shahid Zaman, Mansoor, Zaman and Shumsul Islam Kakar.

Yasir was placed directly in the main round of 16 while Burki was to appear in the qualifying round. Earlier three young Pakistani players including Aamir Atlas, Farhan Mehboob and Farrukh Zaman could not participate in $10,675 Losone Open Squash tournament to be played in Losone, Switzerland from April 12 to 17 as the Switzerland Embassy refused them visas.

The Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) has taken serious notice of the situation and written a letter to the PSA, world’s squash governing body, to probe the matter. “Our players are registered with the PSA and it is PSA’s responsibility to ensure their participation in international events where they enter their names,” PSF secretary Zulfiqar Ahmed said. He said the PSF was also pursuing the Pakistan Foreign Office to take the matter with the concerned countries at government level so that such incidents did not occur in future.

“This not only will disappoint our players but also effect their PSA ranking because players participating in these tournaments are awarded points according to their performance. This move will push our players further down the ladder,” he said. Coach Rehmat Khan also expressed his disappointment over the incident requesting better treatment to the PSA-registered players by the foreign embassies in Pakistan.

Two Pakistani players denied visas to Ireland to play in the Irish Open. The report in the previous post says that PSA should be responsible for the players to get their visas. What rubbish. Surely every individual is responsible for their own travel? I'm not saying that the two players shouldn't have received visas, but to blame the PSA? Maybe they filled in their applications incorrectly, or too late, or whatever.

Seems like the reason always given is that the application was not filled out correctly. Come on, you got to be kidding me.
Either these guys ( the ones filling out the papers) are extremely stupid and keep on making the same mistakes over and over again. Or I think that the embassies keep on changing the requirement so often in third world countries that it is hard to keep track of what is required and what is not.
These players are trying to make a living by playing squash and making it on the pro tour. I think it should be a crime if you stop someone from trying to earn a living. Shame to the govt's of Switzerland and Ireland.

Okay, Farang. But do you think that the PSA should be held responsible for getting the players their visas?

The news release didn't imply that the PSA is responsible. What it did suggest is that the PSA has a duty to protect the players playing on the international circuit who are bonafide members of the tour and pay their dues, therefore it is incumbent on the PSA approcahes these host countries and their consulates and clarify the issue. Its highly naive to suggest that the players didn't get their visas because it wasn't filled out on time. The only reasons that people in countries like Pakistan are denied visas is a. they are considered terrorist threats and b. that they are at risk of becoming aliens, none of the two applies to the above players. Shame on these countries.

Don't want to get too philosophical here, but I feel that people should voice their concern when they think an injustice is being done. Now what one thinks an injustice is, can be based on your conscience or your sense of what is right or wrong.
So based on that I do think that the PSA should be the body that ensures that the players that are registered with it and pay their dues, that their interests are duly protected.
PSA I think is a toothless and spineless entity. This has happened in the past too and the fact that it keeps on happening indicates that someone in PSA is not doing their job well. I should say the same about the Pakistan Foreign Office too. But then Pakistani government and its repesentatives generally are easily pushed around in the world comity.
On another note here in the US, every sports body has a players association, the NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB all have it. Its merits or demerits can be debated but no one ever discriminates against players that are in the union and the union fights for them if they see an injustice.
Squash is not a very popular sport compared to other racquet sports like tennis and for squash to be in the Olympics the PSA needs to develop some muscle.
What I am hearing now is that the Irish embassy would have taken 3 weeks to process the application and that is just ridiculous. Every embassy that I know of has a fast track process, does the Irish emabssy not have that. And the contention that squash players from Pakistan are apt to over stay their visa is an assumption that cannot be proved, name me one Pakistani squash player or for that matter any athlete from Pakistan who has done so.
As far as the terrorist thing is concerned I don't see any squash players from Egpyt being denied visas and they are a Muslim country too.

You really think that the Irish Government is going to take notice of PSA? Get real for heavens sake. This is about terrorism, Afghanistan and the Iraq war. If you want to start sorting it out talk to Dubbya about PSA's role in world security and let me know what he says.

What a load of crap. Who said PSA has any authority. Your paranoia is ignorant and typical. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that these guys are making a livelihood of squash and having been playing the game for years and hence were NOT terrorists. A security/clearance check would have as in this case would have been exteremly easy to perform. The people in these embassies were lazy bums who didn't perform the jobs they are paid to do.

And NO not all people from the third world are ready to skip country and become cabbies and/or work at the local walmart.

My comment did not show paranoia, just realism and an objective understanding that the few people in embassies are not going to carry out checks on hundreds or thousands of applications easily. Farang wrote "PSA I think is a toothless and spineless entity. This has happened in the past too and the fact that it keeps on happening indicates that someone in PSA is not doing their job well." My comment said "Get Real" and I mean it.

So is the way of the world, Farang. All it takes is a minute percentage of nutjobs to blow up a few people and the world changes. I am not for one minute suggesting that any Pakistani PSA player is a terrorist, but your reasoning that PSA players should automatically get visas simply because they are squash players is also ludicrous. Terrorists come in all shapes and sizes, from all types of businesses and families. Why should a PSA player be treated any different through the screening process than anyone else?

It is sad that some players are denied visas, but surely the visas were denied for some other reason than simply because they are Pakistani? Maybe there is a quota? Who knows - you don't, so you can't go about throwing crazy accusations. No one said it's fair, but since when is anything in life fair?

farang if you knew how much Pakistani squash players make you would understand why the irish are hesitant to give them visas. if i were a Pakistani pro ranked below 50, i would do much better for myself working illegally in Ireland in a convenience store rather than playing the PSA tour.

I think you are talking out of your arse.
You apparently are not aware of all that goes on in Pakistan with regards to squash.