Tribunal acquits Shoaib, Asif
Bureau Report

KARACHI—Setting aside a ban on Pakistan’s speed merchants Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammed Asif, the Appeal Committee headed by Justice (Rtd) Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim in its verdict Tuesday said the appellants have met the test of “exceptional circumstances” as laid down in clause 4.5 of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Anti-Doping Regulations (ADR) and, therefore, the two cannot be deemed to have committed a doping offence.
The Appeal Committee said the ban and punishment imposed by the Anti-Doping Commission’s decision of 1-11-2006 is hereby set aside as being contrary to the Provisions of Clause 4.5 of PCB’s ADR. The Committee which also had former test cricketer Hasib Ahsan and Dr. Danish Zaheer as members announced its verdict at a press conference here Tuesday. However, Dr. Danish Zaheer expressed a dissenting opinion about the decision.
PCB had banned Shoaib Akhtar for playing international cricket for two years while Asif was banned for one year on charge of use of banned substance prior to Champions Trophy in India. PCB had internally carried out a doping test of a pool of about twenty players before the Champions Trophy, and Shoaib and Asif’s samples were found positive whereafter the ban was imposed as punishment and they were called back home from Jaipur, India.
The two filed an appeal against their punishment and the Appellate Tribunal’s Chairman Justice Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim, after hearing their pleas set aside the same. The committee in its 19-page verdict said the vast record of proceedings before the ADC and this Appeals Committee, establishes that Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammed Asif were never advised against taking supplements, nor were they provided with any international or local publications warning them against their use. Hence, it said, this Appeals Committee by a majority of 2 to 1, is of the considered view that Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammed Asif had successfully established that they held an honest and reasonable belief that the supplements ingested by them did not contain any prohibited substances. Only recently, the verdict said, in August 2006, Mohammed Asif himself volunteered information to Pakistan team physio Darryl Lifson that he was taking supplements and was told to discontinue the same. It said when Pakistan team coach Bob Woolmer was shown the WADA 2006 prohibited list and an athlete guide by the ADC, he did not recognise the same as having been provided to him or the players.