LAHORE – The Lahore High Court on Friday issued notice to Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for early-hearing of appeal of fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar who has challenged the penalty of one-and-a-half-year ban and a fine of Rs7 million imposed on him by an appellate tribunal constituted by the PCB.
In this case, the then LHC Chief Justice on July 3, 2008, had allowed Shoaib Akhtar to participate in national or international cricket by suspending the ban on his playing cricket.
The bowler through his counsel Abid Hasan Manto had pleaded that the appellate tribunal of the PCB was not authorised to award such penalty because the same was not provided under the relevant law. The counsel submitted that the tribunal illegally passed the impugned order by relying upon two earlier orders given by two different disciplinary committees of the PCB.
He pointed out that in Oct 2007 that a disciplinary committee had imposed a ban of 13 matches on his client and fine of Rs4 million on the charges of hitting a fellow cricketer in South Africa. Manto said the other committee passed order of life ban, which he challenged before the PCB tribunal. He said that imposing a life ban was completely ultra vires and illegal because it was not provided in any law rule or policy of the board.
He asserted that an illegal part of that order cannot be relied upon by disciplinary committee that imposed five years ban. The counsel, therefore, requested the court to declare the disciplinary committees order and findings of the appellate tribunal as illegal.
