June 23, 2002	Sunday	Rabi-us-Sani 11, 1423

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KARACHI, June 22: Justice Karamat Bhandari, in his inquiry Commission report, has revealed that he had received a anonymous letter accusing deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the then cricket board chief Khalid Mahmood of discussing the fate Pakistan’s World Cup match against Bangladesh to benefit the establishment.

However, upon cross-examining Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) finance manager Mushtaq Ahmad and after going through the statement of accounts/transactions, the allegation was found to be untrue.

The Judge says in his report that the author of the letter claimed he had overheard the conversation of Khalid Mahmood with the then Prime Minister “to effect that the board should raise its own finances as the government was not in a position to do so.

“The author suggested that there was an unusual deposit of over a million dollars in the account of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in Bank Alfalah Limited soon after loss of Pakistan to Bangladesh,” the Lahore High Court Judge has noted in his report.

The report says the relevant documents, on fur-ther probe, revealed that US$1,500,000 were deposited in the Bank Alfalah from Standard Chartered on June 7, 1999 — seven days after Pakistan lost to Bangladesh by 62 runs.

“Statement of accounts shows between 21.7.1198 to 3.3.1999, the board had been receiving various amounts in its account in Standard Chartered Bank from M/s TransWorld International, a company based in America to whom the board had given television coverage rights from matches played by Pakistan team.

“The amount thus accumulated was transferred to the account of the board in Alfalah Bank.

“The suggestion in the anonymous letter that receipt of millions of US dollars by the board was a direct consequence of losing the match against Bangladesh, has not been found true.”