Pakistani tennis officials are not happy with the President of the Asian Tennis Federation (ATF), India's Anil Khanna, for moving the executive council meeting of the continental body from Islamabad to New Delhi.
The Pakistan Tennis Federation was scheduled to host the ATF meeting in Islamabad in November on the 11th and 12th and had already sent out invitations to different delegates of member countries to attend the meeting.
"But the PTF recently got a intimation from Anil Khanna that the meeting had been shifted to New Delhi due to the ongoing security situation in Pakistan," a source said.
"The ATF President made it clear that the Indian government had agreed to provide all facilities to the ATF for the meeting in Delhi," he said.
Another PTF official said that it was unfortunate the way the ATF President had deprived Pakistan of the chance to host an international event and perhaps pave the way for foreign teams to again resume playing in Pakistan.
The official said that it was apparent that the decision to move the meeting to Delhi was because of the existing political and diplomatic tensions between the two countries.
No foreign team has agreed to play in Pakistan for the last eight years and neither has the International Tennis Federation allowed Pakistan to host its Davis Cup ties at home, forcing them to play at neutral venues and lose home advantage.
Saifullah Saleem, who heads the PTF, said a full delegation would attend the ATF meeting in Delhi to put forward Pakistan's point of view and convince other delegates to send their teams to Pakistan for ties.
He also said that Anil Khanna had helped Pakistan by sending Indian junior and veteran players to Pakistan in recent times.
Malaysia, China, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Maldives, Nepal, Singapore will send delegates for the ATF meeting.
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