Board’s security advisor Colonel (r) Waseem not cooperating with police to improve security arrangements
Had exchanged hot words with police when terrorists attacked worship place of Ahmedis at Model Town
LAHORE
Personal differences between the Model Town Police and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Security Advisor Colonel (r) Waseem have left a question mark on the security being provided to the Faysal Bank T20 tournament, Pakistan Today learnt on Thursday. According to sources, Waseem was angry at the Model Town Police for not providing security to the worship place of Ahmedis located at Model Town, which were attacked by terrorists on May 28. Police officials had expressed reservations over the security arrangements made by the PCB for the ongoing T20 tournament while the PCB, on police orders, had restrained Waseem from performing his duties as the board’s security advisor.
According to sources, On May, when terrorists had attacked the worship place of Ahmedis, Waseem had exchanged harsh words with Model Town Superintendent of Police (SP) Rana Ayaz, as the PCB security advisor had blamed police for not protecting the worship place but the matter was settled afterwards. But now as Waseem was making security arrangements for the T20 tournament, the Model Town police had contacted him for finalising the arrangements. The PCB security advisor was not cooperating with police to provide foolproof security arrangements for the tournament. According to sources, On September 28, Model Town Police officials held a meeting with PCB officials to prepare a security plan for the T20 tournament. The PCB officials told police that they would install security equipment at all entry and exist points of the Qaddafi Stadium for providing foolproof security to cricketers. But when police officials visited the stadium, they found out all the security equipment was not working. They informed the PCB officials about their carelessness, but the board officials were not interested in improving their security arrangements.
According to sources, the PCB officials had assured police that they would use all floodlights of the stadium to ensure proper light in the stadium premises but the board could not fulfill its promise due to heavy load shedding in the city. According to sources, the Model Town Police had asked the PCB to remove Waseem from his post but that led to a scuffle between senior PCB officials and a police inspector. It is pertinent to mention here that despite PCB Chairman Ijaz Butt’s directions, Waseem had refused to improve the security arrangements, as he was not ready to cooperate with the Model Town Police at all.
Model Town SP Rana Ayaz lamented that despite his instructions, the PCB administration had not improved the security situation, which had left the cricketers in a difficult situation.
