We will seriously look into match-fixing reports: Pak senator

Lahore:

A Pakistani senator Humayun Akhtar on Saturday reaffirmed that the Senate Standing Committee on Sports would be looking seriously into the allegations about some cricketers involvement in match-fixing.

"I stand by what the Senate committee has said earlier that we feel the Pakistan Cricket Board is duty bound to let the people know the truth about match-fixing in the national team," Akhtar said after a visit to the Gaddafi stadium here.

Akhtar is a member of the Senate committee whose chairman Ghaffar Qureshi, after a meeting with PCB officials last month, had told the media that they had been shown enough evidence to suggest some players were involved in match-fixing.

"At that meeting we were shown video clips and the sentence 'Below par performance' was used regularly by board officials. When we asked them what did they mean by 'Below par performance', they told us we should draw our own conclusions," Akhtar said.

He made it clear that the Senate committee had for the time being put on hold a relentless pursuit of the truth on the matter because of the World T20.

"But once the team returns home we will be calling them to look into this serious matter," the senator said.

Akhtar pointed out that even in the report of PCB's own inquiry committee that has been leaked out in the media, some of the officials appearing before the committee claimed there was creditable evidence to suggest match-fixing had taken place.

"What does Intikhab Alam mean when he says Rana Naved's integrity was '80 per cent doubtful," he questioned.

Akhtar and other members of a sub-committee of the senate standing committee visited the Gaddafi stadium to look into a scandal surrounding the construction and upgradation of a new building.

The PCB has refused to allow further work on the project, claiming there were issues involved in the approval given for the project by former chairman of the board Nasim Ashraf.

But Akhtar said what they had seen it appeared as if the PCB set up is inefficient.

"The construction company Metco claims that the PCB has refused to clear outstanding dues of around 8 crore rupees they spent on the project and other projects of the board. We have today told the PCB to sort out this issue in 15 days time or the senate committee will decide on it itself," he said.