Daily Times

LAHORE: Defending champions Pakistan’s strong 18-member national bridge contingent comprising women, seniors and open teams will be featuring in the 19th edition of Bridge Federation of Asia and Middle East (BFAME) scheduled to be held in Dubai from April 3 to 11. The national squad will leave for Dubai on Sunday (today). These bridge players earned this honour after emerging successful in the national bridge trials that were held over five days in February this year. To support this overseas trip of the bridge champions, Lahore Gymkhana Chairman Kamran Lashari and Convenor Card Room Khawaja Imran Zubair have lent support to these skilled bridge players and offered them patronage of their parent club to represent the country at the international level and bring international honours.

“We have received entries from the Pakistan Bridge Federation and all our teams will be battling to qualify for different world championship events,” Azwar-ul-Haque, secretary general of the BFAME said Friday.

Two top teams from the event will qualify for Bermuda Bowl World Bridge Championship, Venice Cup and Dorsi Trophy World Seniors Championship. These three big events are scheduled to be held in the French city of Leon from August 12 to 26. United Arab Emirates will be defending their BFAME Open tile which they won in Amman, Jordan, in 2015.

According to Azwar, teams from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Jordan, Kuwait and hosts UAE will be appearing in the open event. The countries fielding women teams include India, Pakistan, Jordan, Palestine, Kuwait and UAE. In the seniors event, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Jordan and the UAE will be battling for honours. Pakistan emerged on bridge horizon when they went down fighting against the USA in Bermuda Bowl in 1981.

They soon established themselves as a bridge power on the world map due to their potential and talent. The national team then comprised great bridge players like Zia Mahmood, Masood Salim, Jan-e-Alam Fazli, Munir Ataullah, Nisar Ahmed and Nishat Abedi. Zia Mahmood, now represents the USA and is part of the world champion USA team who won the Bermuda Bowl in 2009. Pakistan teams will be departing to Dubai in different batches from Sunday. The PBF has not appointed any official for the event nor the teams have received any funding from the Pakistan Sports Board for featuring in the Zone-IV Bridge Gala.

Pakistan teams:

Open: Ahsan Javed Qureshi, Nauman Butt, Ghias Malik, Mubashir Puri, Junaid Said and Zia Haider Nagi.

Women: Rehana Saigol, Sarnina Raza, Shamim Saeed, Shahnaz Peerzada, Qudsia Dossa and Roshan Ara Bukhari.

Seniors: Ghalib Bandesha, Asad Maqbool, Izzat Khalil, Safdar Khan, Masood Mazhar and Mirza Shouq Hussain.