Supreme Court urged to initiate criminal proceedings against top PCB officials

The Supreme Court of Pakistan has been urged to initiate criminal proceedings against the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), after the Pakistan Super League (PSL) live-streaming rights blunder.

Former member of the PCB Board of Governors (BoG) Shakil Sheikh and currently suspended member of the BoG Nouman Butt have filed a joint constitutional petition in the country’s top court under Article 184/3. The petition has been filed through renowned counsel Mohammad Asad Rajput and notices have been issued to 11 respondents.  

The respondents include: 1) Ministry of Inter Provincial Coordination, 2) PCB, 3) Chairman Ehsan Mani, 4) Chief Executive Wasim Khan, 5) Director International Cricket Zakir Khan, 6) Director Media Samiul Hassan Burney, 7) Director Commercial Babar Hamid, 8) Director Security and Anti-Corruption Asif Mehmood, 9) Member BoG Asad Ali Khan, 10) Ex- Chief Operating Officer Subhan Ahmed, 11) Acting Chief Financial Officer Ateeque Rasheed.

According to a press release, PCB’s live-streaming rights contract with Techfront, for three years, was against the injunctions of The Quran and Sunnah and Article 2-A, Article 5, Article 31, Article 37-g of the constitution of Pakistan.

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The PSL season five was live-streamed on a foreign betting website. When Daily Express highlighted the issue, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) accepted the mistake while putting the blame on their media partners.

Techfront extended its regrets and apology to the PCB and sought an amicable resolution to an outstanding dispute between the parties, couple of days back.

The petitioners have prayed to the Supreme Court to declare that fundamental rights of the petitioners and the citizens of Pakistan cannot and should not be violated by any means by the respondents, particularly by actively allowing/involving betting/gambling in sport of cricket.

They added that the court should issue appropriate directions to the respondents to preserve and protect the constitution of Pakistan and abide by the laws and take immediate steps to curb the menace of betting/gambling from the cricket in legally effective manners and forms whatsoever.

They also requested to declare the agreement as unlawful while also initiating civil and criminal proceedings against respondent numbers 2 to 11.

They also urged the court to suspend respondent numbers 2 to 9 and 11 from their respective offices and constitute a body/forum/committee to manage, administer and effectively run the day to day affairs of PCB.