ISLAMABAD, May 17: The Senate Standing Committee on Sports, Culture, Tourism and Minorities has decided to summon Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) officials to appear before it to explain as to why Pakistan lost the recent Test and One-day series with India , a committee member told Dawn after the meeting on Monday.

People's Party Parliamentarians (PPP) Senator Enver Baig said that on his request, the committee had decided to summon PCB chairman Shaharyar M. Khan, chief executive Ramiz Raja and chief selector Wasim Bari to give reasons for the "cricket debacle" faced by the country.

Mr Baig said these PCB officials were being informed about the decision and they would be asked to make themselves available in the next meeting of the committee. He, however, said no date had been fixed for the next meeting.

The PPP senator said the Senate body was also consideringinviting head of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) Gen Mohammad Aziz and chief of Pakistan Squash Federation Air Marshal Kaleem Saadat to the second and third meeting of the committee, respectively.

Mr Baig said in all these sporting events Pakistan has been on top of the world for many years. However, he said, the nation was greatly concerned because of poor performance of Pakistan in these games in the recent past.

Meanwhile, chairman of the committee Zafar Iqbal Chaudhry, when contacted, said the secretary of the Ministry of Sports and Culture was sending a letter to the PCB officials informing them about the questions raised by the senators during the meeting.

After receiving a reply from the PCB officials, the committee would decide when they should be summoned, he said denying that they would be summoned to appear in the next meeting.

He said it seemed that they would have to be summoned to appear before the committee following harsh criticism by the members on the defeat of Pakistani cricket team in the recent Pakistan-India series and the secretary had asked the PCB officials to give reply within few days.