PCB chairman must go: Pak Senators

Lahore:

Miffed at his dictatorial style of functioning, Pakistani senators on Saturday launched a verbal attack on PCB Chairman Ejaz Butt, saying that he must go if the game has to flourish in Pakistan.

"He is the cause of all problems and we would urge President Asif Zardari to spare Pakistan cricket from this man," Senator Humayun Akhtar said after a meeting with Butt here on Saturday.

During the meeting, Butt refused to honour a commitment from Wasim Bari, the PCB chief operating officer, that the Board would uphold its contractual terms with a construction company, involved in the construction of a new pavilion building at the Gaddafi stadium.

The PCB had refused to pay the amount demanded by the company which then took the case to the Senate Standing Committee on Sports for a resolution.

"On May 20, the PCB chief operating officer gave us in writing, commitments that they would resolve the issue with the company and pay them their dues. Butt didn't attend that meeting as he was not in the country.

"Today when we called him he simply refused to accept the agreement and said the Board would not pay (the sum) to company. We don't understand what sort of institution is he running, it is a joke," Senator Tariq Azeem said.

Azeem said Butt was running a one-man show and this must stop as it was creating all the problems in Pakistan cricket.

"We want to know what steps the Board has taken to pursue suspicions and allegations about some of our players being involved in match-fixing. Why should the ICC be looking into this issue why is the board not conducting its own inquiry," Azeem said.

Senator Akhtar said that the Board should form its own judicial body to probe into the match-fixing allegations.

"We said it before that the Board must act on this issue but they have done nothing," he said.

Akhtar said that the Senators would be taking up the issue of match-fixing allegations with the chief patron soon and would ask him to order an independent probe.

In the leaked recordings of the PCB enquiry committee, former coaches Intikhab Alam and Aaqib Javed have reportedly talked about suspicions over the performance of Kamran Akmal and Rana Naved in some matches of the Australian tour early this year.