LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) resumed the pension of former Test pacer Sarfraz Nawaz after a six-year gap on Tuesday.

Sarfraz’s ex gratia payments were suspended in January 2017 by the then PCB chief Najam Sethi, against whom the former had made unsubstantiated defamatory remarks.

The suspension was lifted after Sarfraz met the incumbent chairman of the board’s interim Management Committee Zaka Ashraf here on Tuesday.

The meeting saw Zaka hand over a cheque to Sarfraz in the presence of former captains Misbah-ul-Haq and Mohammad Hafeez “to settle the payments under the Players’ Welfare Policy”, according to a PCB statement.

“The ex gratia payments had been discontinued as a result of disciplinary proceedings initiated against Mr Sarfraz Nawaz by the previous managements over the violation of Code of Conduct under the Players’ Welfare Policy,” added the statement.

“Mr Sarfraz Nawaz has assured the PCB of his compliance to the Code of Conduct and the ex gratia payments to him under the Players’ Welfare Policy will be now be resumed.”

Zaka said he was “upset” to see Sarfraz “being deprived of his rightful pension”.

“It is disappointing that the previous administrations have used the PCB’s coffers to settle personal scores,” he added.

After Sethi had suspended his pension, Sarfraz had filed a legal case against the PCB in the Supreme Court. However, when Sethi returned to the helm as the PCB’s interim Management Committee chairman in December last year, Sarfraz decided to withdraw the case after tendering an apology to Sethi.

Although Sethi pardoned Sarfraz, he wrote a letter to the ex pacer demanding a written assurance that he would not claim his dues of more than

six years. Sarfraz, however, did not accept the demand and had the matter eventually resolved by Sethi’s successor Zaka.

Sarfraz featured in 55 Tests and 45 One-day Internationals for Pakistan from 1969 till 1984. The right-arm fast bowler took 177 Test wickets at 32.75 and dismissed 63 batters in ODIs at 23.22 runs apiece.

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2023