November 29, 2006	Wednesday	Ziqa'ad 7, 1427

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LAHORE, Nov 28: The three-member Appellate Tribunal of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), reviewing the bans on Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif, is still struggling to reach a consensus-decision over the appeals filed by the fast bowlers against the punishment.

Informed sources told Dawn that the head of the tribunal, Justice Fakharuddin G. Ebrahim appeared clearly unhappy at the way the Doping Commission had conducted the cases early last month that resulted in respective bans of two and one year for the pacers. However, Fakharuddin had some reservations about over-turning or drastically cutting down the bans since the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) could raise objections over the ruling.

PCB’s chairman, Dr Nasim Ashraf recently stated that Shoaib-Asif issue was an internal matter and WADA, International Olympic Committee (IOC) and International Cricket Council (ICC) had nothing to do with it. But despite that, what cannot be overlooked is the fact that the Government of Pakistan is a signatory of the IOC and WADA agreement and may become answerable if a favourable decision on the case is made by the tribunal.

It has been learnt that former Test cricketer Hasib Ahsan, a member of the appellate tribunal, has favoured the acquittal of the two bowlers on grounds that the WADA rules and regulations were not strictly adhered to by the PCB while taking the doping samples of the bowlers and in their subsequent transfer to the Malaysian laboratory.