Foul play: Release baseball players’ passports, LHC orders

Court tells him he will be sent to jail if passports were not handed over to players by next hearing.

LAHORE:

Justice Ijazul Ahsan of Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday took Pakistan Baseball Federation secretary Khawar Shah to task for not returning passports of national baseball team players.

The court told him he would be sent to jail if the passports were not handed over to players by the next hearing.

The players had submitted through their counsel that the federation had taken their passports for a tournament in Canada but did not return them after the event. The federation’s counsel told the court the International Baseball Association had banned Pakistani players from international tournaments after some players went missing in a foreign country 10 years ago.

He said the federation kept players’ passports to avoid reoccurrence of the incident. “Why should you not be sent to jail?” the judge asked Shah.

The court adjourned the hearing until July 21 after Shah tendered an unconditional apology.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 18^th, 2014.