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IJT cricket tournament at Punjab University kicks off
LAHORE, May 25(Daily Times): The four-day Punjab
University cricket tournament (challenge cup 2007) organised by the PU chapter
Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT) kicked off at the New Campus on Thursday evening,
while students slammed university authorities for failing to curtail the group's
increasing influence within the institution.
IJT PU chapter Information
Secretary Kashif Malik confirmed that 125 teams, mostly from different PU
departments, had registered for the tournament, adding that each team had paid
an entry fee of Rs 200.
He said that the winning team would be awarded
Rs 50,000, while the runner-up would receive Rs 25,000. In addition, Malik said,
prizes would be awarded to the best player, best bowler and overall best
performing team at the concluding ceremony of the tournament, scheduled to be
held on May 27.
He also stressed that the IJT student wing saw no harm in
organising sports events for PU students, adding that it had placed posters
advertising the tournament around the New Campus, Old Campus and PU Hailey
College of Banking and Finance (HCBF), located near Old Anarkali. However, while
all posters carried the IJT insignia, they also carried a statement saying that
the tournament had in fact been organised by the PU Talaba Taqreebat Committee.
Meanwhile, IJT Pakistan Central Information Secretary Hamid-ur-Rehman
confirmed that former cricket legend and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) head
Imran Khan had been the chief guest at the tournament's inaugural ceremony.
Jamat-Islami MNA Hafiz Salman Butt, IJT Pakistan nazim Nasrullah Khan Goraya, PU
chapter IJT nazim Muhammad Ayub and other IJT office bearers and a large number
of IJT activists had also attended the ceremony, he added.
On the same
day, a number of PU students said that they were concerned by the
growing influence of IJT within the university, adding that the PU
administration had failed to take action against those members of the group who
had been involved in organising events not authorised by the university.
One student, who wished not to be named, pointed out that although PU
had in May 2006 banned all forms of political activity within the university
premises, it had failed to take action against the IJT for organising an Islamic
conference along the main corridors of the university in March of this year.
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