June 12, 2008	Thursday	Jamadi-us-Sani 07, 1429

KARACHI, June 11: Pakistani pacer Mohammad Asif’s agonising wait in detention is set to extend for another week as the Attorney General’s office in Dubai has not yet submitted the report on his drug possession case to the public prosecutor.

“The signals we are getting is that no progress is expected in the next two days which means the case will go into next week,” a Pakistan Cricket Board official said on Wednesday.

Asif was detained at the Dubai airport on June 1 after he was caught with a small quantity of contraband item.

Sources say his case has been hampered by the fact that he was drunk when he got off the flight from India and had an altercation with officials at the airport. “He didn’t slap anyone as reported in the media but yes there was some altercation with the Custom officials,” a source confirmed.

He said this could be one of the reasons why it is taking so long for the authorities to decide whether to charge him for possession of drugs or deport him to Pakistan.

The PCB on Tuesday recalled Nadeem Akram, their Director Administration, from Dubai saying he was required for the preparations of the Asia Cup.

Currently, a consular in the Pakistan embassy is handling the Asif case but, interestingly, sources say the person selected for the task has only joined the embassy a few weeks ago.

“It is really sad, the way everybody is slowly distancing themselves from Asif. He definitely has only himself to blame for the situation he finds himself in,” former Test captain Intikhab Alam said.

“The future does not look very good for him but this episode shows that the team management needs to be more strict with the players.”—Agencies