ISLAMABAD – Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudry said on Tuesday that New Zealand and England’s moves to cancel their cricket tour to Pakistan are outcome of Pakistan’s hardcore stance, “absolutely not”.
The England Cricket Board on Monday announced that it is withdrawing both its men’s and women’s teams from their tour of Pakistan scheduled for next month. “We can confirm that the Board has reluctantly decided to withdraw both teams from the October trip,” a tweet by the ECB said.
The decision comes three days after New Zealand abandoned their tour of Pakistan citing a “security threat”, minutes before the first ODI match was scheduled to start at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium — a move that shocked Pakistani fans and officials.
In a statement, the ECB said it had “a longstanding commitment to tour Pakistan as part of the Men’s Future Tours Programme in 2022”.
Read more: https://pakobserver.net/after-nz-shock-england-withdraw-from-pakistan-tour/
Briefing media about decision taken by the federal cabinet, Fawad Chaudhry said that the nations had to pay the price if they decide to live with dignity.
He said that Pakistan is ready to tackle such challenge. “If you say ‘absolutely not’ then you have to pay the price for it,” the information minister said.
The PTI leader was apparently hinting towards Prime Minister Imran Khan’s remarks he made in June during an interview with international news organsation.
Speaking in an interview with American TV channel HBO Axios’s host Jonathan Swan, the cricketer-turned-politician said that Pakistan will “absolutely not” give any bases to the US.
“There’s no way we’re going to allow any bases or any sort of action from Pakistani territory into Afghanistan. Absolutely not,” the premier had said.
He said that Pakistan had to suffer the most due to the war against terrorism.
“Over 70,000 Pakistanis embraced martyrdom due to US-Afghan war. We have given sacrifices more than anybody else in this war,” PM Imran Khan said, adding, “We only want peace and don’t want to be part of any confrontation.”
