LAHORE, Oct 6: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) disciplinary committee, after an almost six-hour long proceeding, failed to decide the fate of controversial fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar who is facing several charges, and deferred the decision with the hope to finalise it by Wednesday.

“Though we have done a lot of work but still, some important things are to be discussed and hopefully the committee will be announcing the decision by Wednesday,” the head of the three-member committee, Shafqat Naghmi told reporters after holding the marathon inquiry.

The inquiry was initiated against Shoaib to probe into the ugly incident in which he allegedly hit fellow fast bowler Mohammad Asif with the bat in South Africa prior to start of the Twenty20 Cup.

Though the disciplinary committee had surprisingly dropped the main issue of Shoaib-Asif saga while framing the charges against Shoaib on Friday, the same issue was again raised before the start of the inquiry on Saturday. Naghmi, in fact, admitted that some more clauses should have also been applied in the case of bat-hitting incident.

When contacted, Shoaib’s lawyer Balal Minto told Dawn that he had gone to the inquiry venue on Saturday to give reply to the three allegations which were levelled against Shoaib a day earlier only to find out that yet another charge had been slapped against his name.

“When we reached the PCB headquarters, we were shocked since the committee handed us with the additional charge of Shoaib hitting Asif with the bat,” he said.

Minto said in fact the committee had taken the stance that though Shoaib had been penalised in this case under clauses 6,7 and 34 of the central contract, another clause no. 17 was yet to apply.

“The clause 17 applies under the charge of disreputing the game,” Minto said. He contested that since the incident had not occurred during any cricket match, therefore, the charge of disreputing the game did not apply.

Meanwhile, Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik, all-rounder Shahid Afridi, manager Talat Ali Malik and Asif all appeared before the committee on Saturday.

Later Afridi, who was also one of the parties in the case, told reporters that he had pardoned Shoaib due to the sanctity of the Holy month of Ramazan. He said Shoaib used abuse language against his family, before hitting Asif with the bat, an allegation also levelled by the fast bowler on the all-rounder.

Meanwhile, Naghmi assured that the decision against Shoaib would be taken on merit and the committee would not show any lenient attitude.