A committee of ministers has been formed by Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, to decide if Pakistan would travel to India for the ODI World Cup in October–November 2023. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the foreign minister, will serve as the group’s leader.
The primary responsibility of the committee would be to offer suggestions regarding Pakistan’s travel schedule to India. On the basis of that, the prime minister of Pakistan will approve Pakistan’s participation.
This is in response to PCB’s letter to the government from last week, which asked for guidance on whether the squad could travel to India and, if so, whether there were any concerns regarding any of the five locations. In that same letter, the administration was also asked whether it wanted to deploy a security mission to India.
The committee will decide whether Pakistan will travel to Ahmedabad on October 15 to play India in their third league-stage match. In addition, the committee will offer suggestions for Pakistan’s trip to the other four cities in India that they are scheduled to visit.
Currently, Pakistan’s matches take place in Hyderabad against the Netherlands and Sri Lanka, Ahmedabad against India, Bengaluru against Australia and New Zealand, Kolkata against Bangladesh, and Chennai against South Africa.
In addition to Foreign Minister Zardari, prominent members of the group include Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and Law and Justice Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar. Along with Tariq Fatemi, the PM’s special assistant on foreign affairs, the group will also include Ehsan ur Rehman Mazari, Maryam Aurangzeb, Asad Mehmood, Aminul Haque, Qamar Zaman Kaira, and Asad Mehmood.
The group has members from all political parties and also includes the foreign secretary and the chiefs of the intelligence services. With the existing administration still having 34 days remaining in its term and cross-party representation on the committee intended to guarantee that decision-making is not impacted by a change, that is a likely buffer against a change in government.
This is reportedly the first time a ministerial committee with such prominence has been formed for this reason. Normally, the PCB consults with the foreign ministry before visiting India, but in this case, the diversity of ministries speaks to the larger stakes surrounding the ODI World Cup in India. Pakistan’s participation in the tournament is pending official sanction, as it is with every ICC event, but particularly when it involves traveling to India.
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