ISLAMABAD: Former captain Misbah-ul-Haq will be in charge of Pakistan's 17-day training camp when it opens on Monday in Lahore.
The camp at the National Cricket Academy will have 14 centrally contracted and six other cricketers participating.
Azhar Ali, one of the centrally contracted players, is expected to join the camp after completing his county contract with Somerset.
The other five centrally contracted players — Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Abbas and Mohammad Amir — have been exempted because they are playing county cricket in England.
"We have given exemptions to them but they have been advised to return to Pakistan in time to be available for the first-round matches of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy (domestic first class tournament)," said Zakir Khan, director of international cricket for the Pakistan Cricket Board.
Last week the PCB dismissed the national team coaching staff after Pakistan failed to reach the semifinals of the World Cup. That included head coach Mickey Arthur and batting coach Grant Flower.
The PCB said Misbah and the cricket academy staff would handle the training camp until a new coaching staff is lined up.
The country's premier domestic tournament — Quaid-e-Azam Trophy — begins from Sept. 12. Six teams will compete in 31 four-day matches.
Pakistan will be playing six test matches, three one-day internationals and nine Twenty20s in the 2019-20 international season that begins with hosting Sri Lanka for a two-test series in October.
"Misbah, who has been Pakistan's most successful captain, understands the arduous demands of the format in this day and age," Khan said.
A high-profile security delegation from Sri Lanka visited Lahore and Karachi last week. The PCB hopes to host Sri Lanka in these two cities for two test matches.
Pakistan has not hosted a test match at home since an attack on Sri Lanka's team bus in Lahore in 2009 killed eight people and wounded several Sri Lankan cricketers.
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Camp attendees:
Centrally contracted players: Abid Ali, Asad Shafiq, Azhar Ali, Haris Sohail, Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Rizwan, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shan Masood, Usman Shinwari, Wahab Riaz and Yasir Shah
Non-contracted players: Asif Ali, Bilal Asif, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mir Hamza, Rahat Ali and Zafar Gohar
Misbah to be in charge of Pakistan's 17-day training camp
Misbah to be in charge of Pakistan's 17-day training camp
- The camp at the National Cricket Academy will open on Monday in Lahore
- The country's premier domestic tournament — Quaid-e-Azam Trophy — begins from September 12
Pakistan bans ex-army officer, YouTuber Adil Raja under Anti-Terrorism Act
- Pakistan interior ministry says Raja misused online platforms to promote, facilitate anti-state narratives
- Raja, a UK-based YouTuber-commentator, is a harsh critic of Pakistan’s government, powerful military
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s federal government has listed a former army officer and pro-Imran Khan YouTuber-commentator Adil Raja as a proscribed person in the Anti-Terrorism Act for pushing anti-state narratives, the interior ministry said this week.
Raja, who is now a UK-based blogger who broadcasts political commentary on Pakistan, is severely critical of the government and the military in his YouTube vlogs. Critics also accuse him of being biased in favor of former prime minister Imran Khan.
Pakistani officials have accused Raja of running propaganda campaigns from abroad in the past. Pakistan Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi met British High Commissioner Jane Marriott in Islamabad this month and formally handed over extradition documents for Raja. The UK government has so far not commented on the development.
In a notification issued on Saturday, the interior ministry said the government believes Raja has been demonstrating involvement in activities “posing a serious threat to the security, integrity and public order of Pakistan.”
“He has consistently misused online platforms to promote, facilitate and amplify anti-state narratives and propaganda associated with proscribed terrorist organizations, thereby acting in a manner prejudicial to the sovereignty and defense of Pakistan,” a notification by the interior ministry said.
“Now, therefore in exercise of the powers conferred by section 11EE of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, the Federal Government is pleased to direct to list Mr. Adil Farooq Raja, s/o Umer Farooq Raja, in the Fourth Schedule to the said Act as a proscribed person for the purposes of the said Act.”
Section 11EE empowers the government to list a person under the Fourth Schedule if there are reasonable grounds to believe that he/she is involved in “terrorism” or is an activist, office bearer or an associate of an organization kept under observation under the same Act, or is suspected to be concerned with any organization suspected to be involved in “terrorism.”
Those placed on the Fourth Schedule by the government are subjected to intense scrutiny and movement restrictions.
In a post on social media platform X, Raja denied any wrongdoing, saying the government had banned him after failing to extradite him from the UK.
“This designation is not a consequence of any crime, but a direct reprisal for my practice of journalism,” he wrote.
Raja was also among two retired army officers who were convicted and sentenced under the Army Act, and for violations of the provisions of the Official Secrets Act in 2023.
The former army officer was given 14 years of rigorous imprisonment by a military court.
Khan, a former cricket star who served as Pakistan’s prime minister from 2018 to 2022, has been in jail since August 2023 on multiple charges his party says are politically motivated.
Despite incarceration, he remains the country’s most popular opposition figure, commanding one of the largest digital followings in South Asia.
Overseas Pakistanis in particular drive sustained online activism on platforms such as YouTube and X, campaigning for his release and alleging human-rights abuses against Khan and his supporters, claims the Pakistani state rejects.
