November 20, 2006	Monday	Shawwal 27, 1427

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LAHORE Nov 19: The Pakistan Cricket Board’s three-member Appellate Tribunal (ADAT), set up to review the doping charges on suspended fast bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif, is likely to make rapid progress towards a bold decision when it meets for a second hearing on Monday.

Sources said the lawyers of the two bowlers were determined to question the sample collecting procedures adopted by the PCB medic, Dr Sohail Salim as it was the only way to get a decision in their clients’ favour. A press statement issued on Saturday by Hasib Ahsan, a member of the ADAT, would definitely help the lawyers of the two pacers in projecting their cases. "There are many pre-requisitions in WADA regulations and these have not been fulfilled by the PCB," said Hasib while talking to Voice of America radio service the other day.

Shoaib has hired the services of renowned lawyer, Abid Hasan Manto while Asif is represented by his lawyer Aftab Gul, a former Test cricketer.

The first hearing could only last for one and half hour on Wednesday since Shoaib's counsel pleaded that he was not in a position to fight the case until the time he received the relevant documents from the PCB.

Sources further said the ADAT was not happy over the PCB’s decision of involving England-based sports lawyer Mark Gay, who specially came down from London to attend the first hearing.

The PCB has hired him to assist the tribunal but without consulting Justice Fakharuddin G Ibrahim who heads the appellate tribunal which has Hasib Ahsan and Dr Danish Zaheer as its members.