September 21, 2008	Sunday	Ramazan 20, 1429

KARACHI, Sept 20: Banned Pakistan cricketer Salim Malik’s lawyer filed an application in court on Friday challenging the authority of the federal government to appoint an inquiry commission into match-fixing.

Malik, who was banned for life in 2001 and fined rupees eight million following the recommendations of Justice (retired) Malik Qayyum, has since been fighting to overturn the verdict.

Recently the Supreme Court directed the civil court in Lahore to dispose off his petition as soon as possible.

Malik’s lawyer Shahid Karim filed an application in the civil court on Saturday pleading for an amendment to be made in his client’s existing petition under which he has challenged the government’s authority to constitute the inquiry commission.

“We want this amendment included in our original petition which is that Malik should be cleared off the fine as well as the ban recommended by the inquiry commission,” Karim said.

Tafazzul Rizvi, legal counsel for the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), said the new application would come up for hearing on Monday and the Board would submit its report. The government had formed the Qayyum Commission on PCB’s recommendations.

“The court will now decide first if this request for amendment to the original case is admissible and then the case will proceed further,” Rizvi said.

He, however, made it clear that the PCB only implemented the recommendation of the one-man judicial commission and it would follow any order of the court in letter and spirit. Karim said cases in the civil courts usually were delayed due to backlog of cases. “But if our application and petition is successful in the end, we would have achieved our goal,” he said.—Agencies