LAHORE, Nov 19: The Pakistan Cricket Board on Wednesday criticised the former Chief Operating Officer (COO) Shafqat Naghmi for giving a statement over fast bowler Mohammad Asif’s opium case and accused him of wrong doing in the Board.
In an official statement issued here on Wednesday, the PCB said the revelation of former COO about the young fast bowler was a crude attempt to malign a Test cricketer and cast aspersions on the current management of the board.
The statement further stated: “Naghmi’s revelation about Mohammad Asif is a gross violation of government service rules as well as PCB rules and are highly unethical, irresponsible and unbecoming of a senior civil servant.”
“Naghmi should have realized the dignity and responsibility of his official status before talking to a foreign news agency,” it further said.
Naghmi had said that being the head of the PCB disciplinary committee, he had imposed a cash fine of Rs two million (20 lacs) on Asif and a ban of several international matches for his act of carrying banned medicine in at Dubai airport during April this year. However, since Naghmi was removed from his post last month, his report on the issue has no worth now.
The PCB was of the view that as a responsible official, Naghmi should have handed over the report to his predecessor at the time of handing over the charge. “It was not his [Naghmi] place as a government servant to issue any statement against Asif and alleged negligence to the present management of the PCB for not asking him about the said report on the fast bowler. A case of sour grapes perhaps.”
“We have completed the draft of the report, but the new officials in the PCB have not so far asked us to submit it,” Naghmi told a foreign new agency on Tuesday.
The PCB statement further said: “An inquiry into the Asif’s incident has revealed that the investigating committee headed by Naghmi — Zakir Khan and Nadeem Akram as members - only met for 15 minutes duration during which Asif’s statement was recorded”.
“A member of the committee Zakir Khan has condemned the statement of Naghmi as rubbish since he [Zakir] categorically denies the preparation or the making of any such report exhibiting on the part of Muhammad Asif,” the PCB claims. “Naghmi should have also refrained from chastising Asif that he was caught with a small amount of opium at the Dubai airport.”
“The hallmark of civil service namely anonymity, neutrality and transparency have all being done in by Naghmi’s unbecoming conduct. Naghmi’s visit to Australia for the purchase of a bio-mechanic lab cost National Cricket Academy (NCA) Rs50 million despite the fact that there is not a single qualified person in Pakistan to run it.”
To highlight further Naghmi’s working as former COO, the PCB says: “The fact remains that on Oct 8 when the new PCB Chairman Ijaz Butt came to the Gaddafi Stadium and assumed his office, Naghmi came to see him for a while. The chairman only inquired from Naghmi about the change in the Canada-bound team. He informed the new chairman that it was changed on the order of the Sports Ministry in Islamabad. The chairman asked Naghmi to give the same in writing but Naghmi couldn’t gather any moral courage or for that matter strength to meet the chairman after that or look him in the eye or brief him on important issues. This is owed to the fact that Naghmi himself was an embarrassment to the PCB, costing Rs11 lacs per month.”
”Nevertheless, he had the audacity to steal files from the PCB head office upon his next visit there. Next day the media reported about the incident and Naghmi clarified that he had every right to take some files with him as those were personal. During that period Naghmi also deleted all official data regarding presentations, minutes of various meetings etc, from his computer which itself is a serious offence. This was discovered when the new management checked the official computer which was in Naghmi’s use,” the PCB alleged.
“Naghmi’s utterances that the new PCB management didn’t bother to ask him for the report on Mohammad Asif appears a cruel joke. How could the new management of the PCB know about the existence of such a report? It was the moral duty of Naghmi to give charge of everything to a responsible official of the PCB which he didn’t. The PCB expects that in future Naghmi, being a government official, would follow his code of conduct and refrain from issuing statements against an institution whose Patron is the President of the Islamic republic of Pakistan,” the PCB warned.