World Junior Squash Champion Hamza Khan calls on COAS Asim Munir

RAWALPINDI: World Junior Squash Champion Mohammad Hamza Khan called on Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Syed Asim Munir at the General Headquarters (GHQ) today, ARY News quoted ISPR.

COAS General Asim Munir congratulated the young champion Hamza Khan for his outstanding achievement in bringing honour to the country, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) press release.

“Talents like you make us all proud and your great achievement also underscores the great potential that this nation has”, the army chief remarked.

COAS also said, “Army will continue to support the young talent in the country and promised to provide him full support in academic pursuit and sports.”

COAS Munir emphasised, “Our youth is the future of this country and with focus, dedication and hard work there is nothing that Pakistan cannot accomplish”.

After 37 long years, Pakistan became the World Junior Squash champion as young Hamza Khan made a comeback to beat his Egyptian rival Mohamed Zakaria to win the finale in Melbourne last month.

Khan claimed a 3-1 victory over Zakaria in the finale, with a scoreline of 10-12, 14-12, 11-3 and 11-6.

This was Pakistan’s first World Junior Squash title in nearly four decades as the last Pakistani player to lift this trophy was Jansher Khan, who won the title 37 years ago in 1986.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif lauded Junior World Squash Champion Hamza Khan for bringing laurels to Pakistan despite the lack of facilities for sports.

In a tweet, he said, “Today I met Pakistan’s talented young man Hamza Khan who recently made the nation proud by winning Junior World Title in Squash in Australia after a period of decades.”

He said he handed over a cheque of Rs10 million to Hamza from the government of Pakistan and sought his pledge that he would continue his hard work and play with more determination to make Pakistan’s name shine by winning Senior World Championship.

He recalled that he recently started the countrywide Sports Initiative for the promotion of sports which included Pakistan’s first Sports University, the Pakistan Sports Endowment Fund and more measures for the welfare of players and the advancement of sports.

He expressed hope that after these measures other thousands of youth like Hamza Khan would also bring laurels for Pakistan in international competitions.