September 30, 2007	Sunday	Ramazan 17, 1428

LAHORE, Sept 29: Speedster Shoaib Akhtar will appear before the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) disciplinary committee at the Gaddafi Stadium on Saturday, Oct 6 to face several charges including that of hitting fellow pacer Mohammad Asif with a cricket bat in South Africa.

The chairman disciplinary committee, Shafqat Naghmi told Dawn that a show cause notice to Shoaib was dispatched on Saturday and added the bowler had also received it.

“The disciplinary committee soon after finalising charges on Shoaib, sent a show cause notice to him on Saturday and I have reports that Shoaib did receive it,” he said.

It may be mentioned that in a previous disciplinary action, Shoaib had escaped punishment as the disciplinary committee had announced the decision in his absence.

While the committee had imposed a total cash penalty of Rs 300,000 on Shoaib then for missing a day of training camp in Karachi, the fast bowler had taken a stance that he received the show cause notice two days after the committee had announced the punishment.

To a question, Naghmi said the decision to start the inquiry after seven days has been taken since all the players would be available in Lahore on the eve of the second Test against South Africa, starting here from Oct 8.

He said Shahid Afridi, who is also one of the parties in the case, would come to Lahore specially to attend the hearing since the all-rounder was not part of the Test match series against the Proteas.

To yet another question, Naghmi said a number of other charges were also levelled on Shoaib in the show cause notice.

Though he avoided to give details of the other charges, he said one of that was related to Shoaib’s addressing a press conference soon after reaching Lahore from South Africa after the incident.

Shoaib, who had already apologised to Asif and the nation, is under an indefinite ban and is likely to miss the entire ongoing series against South Africa which ends on Oct 29.