May 05, 2008	Monday	Rabi-us-Sani 28, 1429

LAHORE, May 4: There is no bar on Shoaib Akhtar now to play in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) after the Pakistan Cricket Board’s Appellate Tribunal suspended the five-year ban imposed on the controversial fast bowler by the board’s disciplinary committee, on April 1, for breaching the Players’ Code of Conduct, for one month (till June 4).

Retired justice Aftab Farrukh, who heads the tribunal, after a brief meeting called at a day’s notice, decided that “In the interest of justice the impugned order of imposing the ban on the appellant is suspended until the next date of hearing, i.e., June 4, 2008. On the said date, the instant order shall ipso facto cease to have any effect.”

The tribunal had been formed by the PCB chairman Dr Nasim Ashraf in order to hear out Shoaib’s case while taking into account his appeal which the bowler filed with them against the ban.

Earlier, before reading out the orders, Justice Aftab explained that the remaining two members of the tribunal, namely, Salman Taseer and Haseeb Ahsan, had been unable to attend the meeting on such short notice.

“But I have Salman Taseer’s consent before announcing the decision. “However, contact could not be established with Haseeb on his given phone numbers,” he added.“Any how, as we already have the consent of two members [Aftab and Salman] out of total three, the decision has been taken to allow relief to Shoaib Akhtar, which is his right,” Justice Aftab said.

“As the disciplinary committee’s ban restricts Shoaib from playing only in Pakistan and for Pakistan and as he had already signed with the IPL before the ban, the appellate tribunal is giving him relief to save him from any financial losses as a result of the hearing,” he said.

The IPL’s final is to be held on June 1, which means that Shoaib can play till the last day of the tournament provided his team, the Kolkata Knight Riders, makes it to the final.

Earlier, the tribunal also gave relief to Shoaib last week by suspending his hearing till an indefinite period till June in order to allow him to go and play in the IPL. But the IPL chairman Lalit Modi disallowed him from playing in the league until the lifting of the ban making him eligible to play for his own country.

Shoaib had then moved another application to the tribunal on Saturday pleading to suspend the order, which has now been accepted.

To a question regarding the bowler’s eligibility to also play for Pakistan till June 4, Justice Aftab said that it was technically possible but since Pakistan has no international schedule till that date, there was no question about his selection in the national side.

Justice Aftab said that this was the maximum relief that he could provide to Shoaib at the moment.

“If the IPL is still not ready to allow Shoaib to play, the appellate tribunal cannot do any thing more for the bowler,” he added.

But there are reports from India that Modi has accepted the tribunal’s fresh decision making it possible for Shoaib to go to India to join his league there. Meanwhile, PCB’s lawyer Taffazul Hussain Rizvi said that he had no objection, since the board’s disciplinary committee did not stop Shoaib from playing cricket out of the country and for any other side.

When asked how could the PCB be supporting Shoaib on one side while filing a Rs220 million defamation case against him, Taffazul said that both the cases carried their own merit.

The defamation case was filed in the civil court, which has deferred the case till May 16 after its initial first hearing on Saturday.