LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Friday replied to the legal notice of Najam Sethi in which its former chairman claimed that wrong figures about his benefits and allowances were made public on the board’s website to defame him.

In a brief comment on the reply to his legal notice, Sethi said: “I am not satisfied with the reply of the PCB and after consulting my lawyer I will go to the court. No answers of any of my four questions raised in my legal notice are given in this reply.”

In his legal notice sent on Oct 29 this year, Sethi had raised four points and the PCB replied to all of them in their response.

Sethi had claimed that he did not take the amount of Rs14,181,570 as allowance for being the Pakistan Super League (PSL) chairman as is mentioned in his account in the financial sheet issued by the PCB.

The PCB also admitted that Sethi did not take the amount but as it was approved, it had been mentioned in his accounts.

“The PSL Allowance in the amount of Rs. 14,181,570 was approved as a payment to be made to your client by the Board pursuant to the initiation of a circular resolution in February 2018 by your client in his capacity as chairman of the Board,” the PCB lawyer said in his reply.

“The PSL Allowance was approved retrospectively as payble to your client for the period 1st August 2015 until his appointment as chairman PCB on 9th August 2017 at the rate of Rs 500,000 (net of tax) per month. Therefore, it is represented in the accounts as it was approved and hence would remain due until either refused by your client or such approval is altered by the Board of Governors.”

Sethi also said that an amount of Rs7,046,845 wasn’t received by him.

“A payment of Rs7,046,845 against the said approved PSL allowance was made to your client vide cheque dated 10th August 2018 for a net amount of Rs 6,064,516 after deducting of tax. However, upon your client informing the CFO of PCB a month later that he appeared to have misplaced the said cheque, the payment of the said cheque was stopped at your client’s request on 17th Sept, 2018.”

Sethi, however, told Dawn he hadn’t received any such cheque. “If I lost the said cheque, then the PCB must have its receipt in its record and it should show where I received it,” he said.

Sethi had also raised objections that while his accounts had been made public, the account details that were published of his predecessor Shaharyar Khan were limited to just a year (2017).

PCB said in its response that it will disclose the details of Shaharyar’s whole tenure (2014-2017) “when the chart is updated along with the disclosure of benefits and allowances received by the other members of the Board”.

Sethi had also questioned why account details of his time as PCB Executive Committee chairman, during Shaharyar’s tenure as PCB chief, were revealed.

In its reply, the PCB said the reasons were “two-fold”.

“First majority of these expenses and benefits such as the PSL allowance and vehicle allowance were approved retrospectively in 2018 during the period your client was chairman of the Board,” it stated. “Secondly, during such relevant period your client while not being chairman of the Board was a member of the Board of Governors as well as acting as the chairman of the executive committee.

“As to the corresponding benefits and allowances received by the other members of the Board during this period, the same are being compiled and shall be shortly publicly disclosed pursuant to the corporate transparency policy to the Board.”

It concluded asking Sethi to withdraw his legal notice, saying the former PCB chief had sought to defame the board.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2018