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Lahore, July 23: All associations affiliated with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) have been suspended. An announcement made by the PCB secretary Waqar Ahmad said that the ad hoc committee, which met under the chairmanship of Mujib-ur-Rahman at the Gaddafi Stadium on Thursday also decided to shortly summon a meeting of the Pakistan cricket team which participated in the 1999 World Cup. In that meeting charges of indiscipline and misconduct will be discussed and the players will be afforded an opportunity to explaintheir position. The meeting was also attended by member Javed Zaman Khan and PCB legal advisor Ali Sibtain Fazli onspecial invitation.

The ad hoc committee also decided to form an honorary advisory committee which will consist of persons with good reputationfrom all walks of life. In that connection, a meeting will be held at Karachi on July 29. Another meeting will be held later at Peshawar.

The announcement said that the affairs of the members were not being carried out in accordance with constitution of the PCB and their conduct was derogatory and repugnant to aims and objects of the board and that they no longer fulfilled the qualifications of membership in which connection a detailed discussion was held. The ad hoc committee also went through the report of Scrutiny Committee constituted by the BCCP ad hoc committee set up in 1994.

``It was decided that in exercise of powers under article 37 read with article 41 (3) of the PCB Constitution, the membership of all PCB members is hereby suspended till further orders. Thus all the existing associations stand suspended'', the announcement concluded.

Fazli's clarification

Karachi sports desk adds: Ali Sibtain Fazli, legal advisor to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) ad hoc committee, justified the suspension of the associations.

Speaking from Lahore, Fazli said: ``The suspension of the PCB meant that the general body and the executive council were also suspended. The appointment of the ad hoc committee meant that the powers of the general body and the executive council have been transferred to the ad hoc committee.

``Now if you look at the PCB constitution and the powers of the executive council and the general body, you will find that it (general body and the executive council) can suspend its associations if it found that they were not working properly.

``In this particular case, the ad hoc committee felt that there were several irregularities as far as working of the associations were concerned.''

Fazli added that this job should have been done way back in May 1995 when the BCCP was renamed as PCB. He added that during the 1994-95 ad hoc committee of Javed Burki, the scrutiny committee had submitted a report on the associations pointing out the abundance of bogus clubs.

Fazli added that the PCB then should have suspended all associations and ordered fresh elections in the backdrop of those countrywide investigations of affiliated and bogus clubs.

``Since that assignment was not done in the last five years, this ad hoc committee, exercising the powers under article 37 of the PCB constitution suspended the membership of all associations with the cricket board,'' Fazli explained.

Fazli said the PCB ad hoc committee can appoint the ad hoc committee of the associations to look after the day-to-day workings of the respective associations.

Asked if there was a time limit to hold fresh elections, Fazli replied: ``the associations have not only been suspended because of bogus clubs, there were several other issues.

``Financial irregularities is also one of the reasons.''

Replying to another question, Fazli said if there was an ad hoc committee of the associations and the cricket season started, the ad hoc committee will select the regional teams so that they can play in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy.

The legal advisor, on the word used as 'suspended' in last Friday's presidential notification, said the people suspended can still come back.

``Had the word supersession been used, then there would have been no possibility of the return (of the cricket board officials). But they can still be reappointed by the President since the word used is suspended,'' he clarified.