ISLAMABAD: Key all-rounder Aamir Jamal has been released from the Test squad against the Bangladesh series due to injury, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced on Monday, dealing a blow to the hosts ahead of the two-match series scheduled to commence later this week.
Jamal has been recovering from a back injury that he sustained while playing county cricket this year. The right-arm pacer was earlier included in Pakistan’s squad subject to fitness clearance. The PCB said Jamal has been advised to improve his fitness at the National Cricket Academy in Lahore.
“Right-arm fast bowler Aamir Jamal has been released from the Test squad ahead of the series against Bangladesh,” the PCB said.
The first Test match between Bangladesh and hosts Pakistan will commence from August 21 at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium while the second match of the series will also be played in Rawalpindi from August 26.
Rawalpindi will host both matches in the series after the PCB moved the second Test from Karachi due to the ongoing renovation work at the National Bank Stadium for next year’s Champions Trophy.
On Sunday, Pakistani all-rounder Salman Ali Agha said he was excited at the prospect of being the country’s only off-spin option against Bangladesh. Pakistan’s only specialist leg-spinner Abrar Ahmed was left out from the squad as the hosts aim to prepare a green-top wicket to help their fast bowlers in the first match.
“When I go out to bat, I only think that I am a batsman,” Agha told reporters at a news conference on Sunday. “Similarly, when I go out to bowl, I always think about bowling.”
The monsoon rains in Pakistan are expected to disrupt the first test in Rawalpindi, but Salman said the home team is not concerned about the overcast conditions and is focused on beating Bangladesh.
“Rain is not in our control, we don’t think much about it,” he said. “What we know is that the conditions are not new to us, and we know it will help our fast bowlers.”
Pakistan squad
Shan Masood (captain), Saud Shakeel (vice-captain), Abdullah Shafique, Babar Azam, Khurram Shahzad, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Huraira, Mohammad Rizwan (wicket-keeper), Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wicket-keeper) and Shaheen Shah Afridi
Setback for Pakistan as injury rules out all-rounder Aamir Jamal from Bangladesh series
https://arab.news/n7vrm
Setback for Pakistan as injury rules out all-rounder Aamir Jamal from Bangladesh series
- Jamal has been recovering from back injury sustained earlier this year while playing county cricket
- Pakistan play first of two Test matches against Bangladesh at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium on Wednesday
Pakistani politicians urge dialogue with Imran Khan’s party as PM offers talks
- National Dialogue Committee group organizes summit attended by prominent lawyers, politicians and journalists in Islamabad
- Participants urge government to lift alleged ban on political activities and media restrictions, form committee for negotiations
ISLAMABAD: Participants of a meeting featuring prominent politicians, lawyers and civil society members on Wednesday urged the government to initiate talks with former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, lift alleged bans on political activities after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif recently invited the PTI for talks.
The summit was organized by the National Dialogue Committee (NDC), a political group formed last month by former PTI members Chaudhry Fawad Husain, ex-Sindh governor Imran Ismail and Mehmood Moulvi. The NDC has called for efforts to ease political tensions in the country and facilitate dialogue between the government and Khan’s party.
The development takes place amid rising tensions between the PTI and Pakistan’s military and government. Khan, who remains in jail on a slew of charges he says are politically motivated, blames the military and the government for colluding to keep him away from power by rigging the 2024 general election and implicating him in false cases. Both deny his allegations.
Since Khan was ousted in a parliamentary vote in April 2022, the PTI has complained of a widespread state crackdown, while Khan and his senior party colleagues have been embroiled in dozens of legal cases. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif last month invited the PTI for talks during a meeting of the federal cabinet, saying harmony among political forces was essential for the country’s progress.
“The prime objective of the dialogue is that we want to bring the political temperatures down,” Ismail told Arab News after the conference concluded.
“At the moment, the heat is so much that people— especially in politics— they do not want to sit across the table and discuss the pertaining issues of Pakistan which is blocking the way for investment.”
Former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who heads the Awaam Pakistan political party, attended the summit along with Jamaat-e-Islami senior leader Liaquat Baloch, Muttahida Quami Movement-Pakistan’s Waseem Akhtar and Haroon Ur Rashid, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association. Journalists Asma Shirazi and Fahd Husain also attended the meeting.
Members of the Pakistan Peoples Party, the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the PTI did not attend the gathering.
The NDC urged Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, President Asif Ali Zardari and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif to initiate talks with the opposition. It said after the government forms its team, the NDC will announce the names of the opposition negotiating team after holding consultations with its jailed members.
“Let us create some environment. Let us bring some temperatures down and then we will do it,” Ismail said regarding a potential meeting with the jailed Khan.
Muhammad Ali Saif, a former adviser to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister, told participants of the meeting that Pakistan was currently in a “dysfunctional state” due to extreme political polarization.
“The tension between the PTI and the institutions, particularly the army, at the moment is the most fundamental, the most prominent and the most crucial issue,” Saif noted.
‘CHANGED FACES’
The summit proposed six specific confidence-building measures. These included lifting an alleged ban on political activities and the appointment of the leaders of opposition in Pakistan’s Senate and National Assembly.
The joint communique called for the immediate release of women political prisoners, such as Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi and PTI leader Yasmin Rashid, and the withdrawal of cases against supporters of political parties.
The communiqué also called for an end to media censorship and proposed that the government and opposition should “neither use the Pakistan Armed Forces for their politics nor engage in negative propaganda against them.”
Amir Khan, an overseas Pakistani businessperson, complained that frequent political changes in the country had undermined investors’ confidence.
“I came here with investment ideas, I came to know that faces have changed after a year,” Amir Khan said, referring to the frequent change in government personnel.
Khan’s party, on the other hand, has been calling for a “meaningful” political dialogue with the government.
However, it has accused the government of denying PTI members meetings with Khan in the Rawalpindi prison where he remains incarcerated.
“For dialogue to be meaningful, it is essential that these authorized representatives are allowed regular and unhindered access to Imran Khan so that any engagement accurately reflects his views and PTI’s collective position,” PTI leader Azhar Leghari told Arab News last week.
