Judicial commission sought for PSL probe

Islamabad – A writ petition seeking appointment of judicial commission to probe into the scam of spot fixing in 2nd edition of Pakistan Super League (PSL) has been moved before the Islamabad High Court.

The petitioner also requested the court to restrain respondents Chairman PCB and Chairman PSL from processing the third edition till the disposal of the matter of second edition of PSL.

The petition was moved by civil society through its Chairman Muhammad Tahir. He filed the petition through his counsel Tariq Asad Advocate and cited patron in Chief, Pakistan Cricket Board Prime Minister through his Principal Secretary, Pakistan Cricket Board through its Chairman, Najam Sethi, the Chairman Pakistan Super League (PSL), Federal Investigation Authority through its Director General Islamabad and National Accountability Bureau (NAB) through its Chairman.

The petitioner adopted in the petition that he had already apprehended that due to unprofessional, inexperienced, inefficient and corrupt management of PCB, the professional players of Pakistani Cricket team usually become involved in corrupt practices like match fixing and spot fixing etc, in and out of the ground as a result of which the people of Pakistan are degraded, defamed and undignified at international level in violation of their fundamental right of dignity guaranteed under Article 14 of the Constitution.

He added that in the past the spot fixing by Pakistani players had greatly hurt the feelings and dignity of the people of Pakistan on the one hand and injured the integrity of Pakistan and its Cricket Team on the other, wherein some members of the Management were involved, too.

Petitioner further said that the apprehension proved true and once again in PSL, second edition, Pakistani cricket has been hit hard with a match-fixing scandal. Times have certainly changed and players as well as officials from around the world are calling upon ICC to deal in a strict manner and impose heavy punishments not less than life bans to those involved in match-fixing and to those, too, who violated the PCB’s Anti-Corruption Code.

Pakistan cricket may end up losing some big names for life, but this time people would not allow PCB to compromise like its past record and are alleging the PCB and PSL management that due to their involvement and/or negligence Pakistan has been defamed at international level.

He told the court that the second edition of Pakistan Super League (PSL) started in Dubai and the game got overshadowed by fixing allegations against Pakistani players Sharjeel Khan and Khalid Latif who were representing Islamabad United in Pakistan Super League second edition in Dubai.

It is alleged that the two had met with a bookie in their hotel room and were involved in bringing the game into disrepute one way or the other. They were immediately suspended under the PCB’s Anti-Corruption Code as part of an ongoing investigation into an organisation’s alleged attempts to corrupt PSL.

Petitioner’s counsel Tariq Asad Advocate maintained in the petition that it is a matter of fact that not only the cricketers involved in bringing the game into disrepute and shaming the nation owing to their greed are the culprits, but also the members of the senior management, the coaches, the tour managers and the selectors of PCB and PSL. He contended that the match fixing in PSL 2 was due to the involvement or at least the negligence of the management, hence instead of wasting time and energy on PSL, the Chairman PCB should himself give priority to the national cricket and should also direct the PCB management to concentrate on the domestic cricket in order to improve the standard of cricket for promoting its ranking.

The counsel argued that it is also a matter of great concern why FIA was restrained from investigating the spot fixing scandal.

Therefore, he prayed to the court to constitute a high level judicial commission to probe into the match fixing scam as the Anti-corruption unit and the three member tribunal controlled by PCB and PSL management have been referred to investigate only the alleged players whereas the public and former test players are of the considered opinion that some other players as well as some officials of PSL were also involved in the match fixing/spot fixing scandal otherwise the proceedings would be considered unilateral, secretive and biased.

He also requested the court to restrain the respondents no 2 and 3 from processing the third edition PSL till the disposal of the matter of second edition PSL or direct the respondent no 1 to form/appoint some other members of management of third edition of PSL excluding all the present members including Chairman PSL.

Source: The Nation