April 08, 2008	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 1, 1429

LAHORE, April 7: A former judge of the Lahore High Court (LHC) will head the three-member appellate tribunal constituted on Monday by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to hear pace bowler Shoaib Akhtar’s appeal against the five-year ban imposed on him by the board’s disciplinary committee last week.

“An appellate tribunal, led by Aftab Farrukh, an ex-LHC judge, will start the proceedings with immediate effect to consider Shoaib Akhtar’s appeal against the penalty imposed on him on disciplinary grounds,” a PCB spokesman said on Monday.

“Chairman PCB Dr Nasim Ashraf constituted the tribunal for this purpose,” the spokesman added.

“The tribunal include Salman Taseer, an entrepreneur and former federal minister, and former Test cricketer Haseeb Ahsan,” he said further.

Shoaib submitted the appeal against the ban last Friday for which the tribunal has been formed.

“Aftab is Pakistan’s distinguished lawyer, who has also been an office bearer of the Pakistan Bar Council.

He gained international repute in a number of high-profile cases and represented Pakistan at the 46th UN General Assembly session,” he said.

It will be the second time that Haseeb would be part of an appellate tribunal in a case involving Shoaib.

Last time, he was the member of the tribunal, which heard the appeal of Shoaib and Mohammad Asif in the 2006 dope test case, in which both were acquitted.