PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday issued notices to Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and State Bank of Pakistan seeking their response to a petition against alleged sponsorship of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) by international betting companies and casinos through surrogate advertising.

A bench consisting of Justice Syed Mohammad Attique Shah and Justice Dr Khurshid Iqbal heard a petition of a resident Syed Tanseer Ahmad Sherazi seeking orders for the federal government to probe the matter and stop PSL teams from getting sponsored by casinos.

The petitioner also prayed the court to order a ban on certain mobile apps of those casinos and betting sites and issue directions to the PCB to devise a comprehensive code of conduct for the PSL.

Advocates Saifullah Muhib Kakakhel and Nouman Muhib Kakakhel represented the petitioner.

They argued that betting/ gambling was prohibited in Pakistan, however, through these surrogate companies young generation was attracted by PSL sponsorships, by writing their names on the franchise’s shirts, to bet in the cricket by using different mobile phone applications.

They stated that these applications available for both Android and IOS users, citizens could easily put in money in their respective profiles from their bank accounts or microfinance companies like easy paisa and jazz cash and the amount was further used for betting.

They argued that these betting companies had their helplines toll numbers in Pakistan as well who helped in putting money in a betting account to bet on various sports events.

The court was told that these companies showed themselves to be sports news and sports utilities manufacturer, etc. but their products were not available or making enough profits as were not focused, whereas, when they were searched on the internet, they were found to be surrogate companies of gambling foreign corporations, with an identical name and logo etc.

They also put forward certain documents of State Bank of Pakistan claiming that it had also questioned the sponsorship as well.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority’s counsel Jehanzeb Mehsud put forward a complaint before the court filed by the authority to FIA to take action against such companies and block their activities.

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2024