Plea against spot-fixers: Counsel given time to prepare arguments

Case adjourned till December 14

ISLAMABAD: The IHC granted time for preparation to the counsel for a commentator who has sought lifetime ban on three cricketers convicted of match fixing.

Justice Aamer Farooq allowed the counsel to come prepared on next hearing. The direction came after Justice Farooq asked him to satisfy the court legally as lifetime ban couldn’t be imposed on mere moral grounds.

The commentator Ehtashamul Haq, through his counsel Umar Hanif Khichi, has filed a petition in the IHC seeking a ban on Salman Butt, Muhammad Asif and Mohammad Amir to play domestic and international cricket.

The petitioner has made Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman and its selection committee respondents.

In his petition, the counsel stated that the shameful act of the players brought national honour and pride into disrepute and contempt but the influence of PCB’s powerful office-bearers was visible as they had kept the detailed inquiry report hidden.

The players were suspended from playing all forms of cricket and jailed for their part in spot-fixing that marred the country’s tour of England in 2010, he maintained.

Later, they were convicted by the English Court but would soon be allowed to play domestic and international cricket with the connivance of the PCB officials, Khichi alleged. In August 2015, the ban was lifted by the International Cricket Council and they are free to return to all forms of cricket from September 2, 2015.

The case will now be taken up on December 14.

DJ Butt case

Separately, in a case pertaining to the violation of a ban on the use of loudspeakers in the capital, DJ Butt submitted his reply in the court of a magistrate.

In his reply, Butt said that his quotation for sound system was accepted by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s procurement committee on August 8, 2014. Since the Secretariat Assistant Commissioner Waqas Rasheed was on leave, the reply was submitted and case was simply adjourned till December 17.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 11^th, 2015.