The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Sunday selected Babar Azam as the captain of the national Test side and revealed a 17-member squad for the forthcoming Test tours of West Indies and England.

Pakistan’s overseas assignment will be off with a two-match Test series against the West Indies in Trinidad & Tobago. The first Test will be held from July 25-29, with the second slotted in for August 2-6.

After the Caribbean tour, Pakistan will head to England to play a three-Test series. The first Test will be at Headingley, Leeds, from August 19, with the second at Lord’s from August 27. The series will end in Edgbaston in Birmingham with the final Test starting on September 9.

The squad comprises of Babar Azam (captain), Aamir Jamal, Abdullah Fazal, Ali Usman, Azan Awais, Imam-ul-Haq, Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Muhammad Awais Zafar, Muhammad Ghazi Ghori (wicketkeeper), Sajid Khan, Salman Ali Agha, Saud Shakeel, Shan Masood and Ubaid Shah.

PCB: Saud Shakeel’s selection for England visit still pending to fitness clearance

Fast bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi was not named in the roster announced for the two Test assignments.

In an interview, senior space scientist Tariq Mustafa gives a unique first-hand account of how Pakistan became the first country to answer to NASA’s plea for help with its moon-landing plan.

Mustafa remembers that in 1961, he was summoned to Washington by Nobel laureate Dr Abdus Salam for an important meeting with NASA leaders.

The US space agency required atmospheric data from the Indian Ocean region for the Apollo programme and provided technical help and training to participating countries.

“This would be a dream come true,” Mustafa remembers telling Salam at their encounter.

Within hours the then 27-year-old engineer was flown to NASA’s Wallops Island to research requirements for creating a rocket range and submit his report the next morning.

Only nine months later, on June 7, 1962, Pakistan successfully fired its first sounding rocket from Sonmiani, adding vital atmospheric data that supported America’s historic Apollo lunar mission.

Mustafa attributes Pakistan’s amazing speed to strong leadership, a qualified scientific workforce and the dedication of a young team that worked day and night to fulfill an ambitious goal.

ISLAMABAD: Religious leaders of various faiths and Islamic schools of thought in Pakistan have denounced what they called “baseless propaganda” by India over a Sikh religious site in Farooqabad, Sheikhupura.

The participants said India had stated in recent days that a Sikh gurdwara in Farooqabad had been dismantled and inhabited by local locals. “We deny the claim and the site is a historic dharamshala that is in its original state since before the creation of Pakistan,” they stated. They said only one wall had fallen down because it was in such bad shape.

The National Peace Committee Coordinator and Pakistan Ulema Council Chairman Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mahmood Ashrafi, along with Muslim scholars and representatives from the Christian, Hindu and Sikh communities, visited the site and formally inaugurated restoration work on the damaged wall.

The delegation said the dharamshala will be restored to its original form and just the collapsed part of the structure would be replaced.

The religious leaders told journalists that Pakistan was a country of all religions and added that non-Muslim populations are given extensive constitutional and religious rights in the country.

They also added that Pakistani Muslims are committed to defending the rights of religious minorities and said the government would continue to ensure the security of minority groups, their places of worship and their holy religious sites.