Rashid Latif decides to take his spot-fixing case to Supreme Court

Pakistan’s suspended batsman, Khalid Latif has decided to take his spot-fixing case to the Supreme Court instead of waiting for a final verdict from the three-member anti-corruption tribunal of the Pakistan Cricket Board.

His lawyer, Badar Alam confirmed that in next few days he will be filing a petition in the Supreme court on behalf of his client against the legality and working of the tribunal and PCB.

“We will go to the Supreme Court in few days and will not be responding to the August 9th deadline given to us by the tribunal to submit our final submission in the case,” he said.

Latif is charged with six counts of breaching the PCB’s anti-corruption code and has since the tribunal started its hearings constantly challenged the legality of the tribunal.

“They are making a mockery of the laws and regulations and they have not even given us a fair chance to fight our case. We have even been abused and harassed in the tribunal hearings,” Alam said.

Asked about who had abused him, he said he wouldn’t take names but anyone could look at the video recordings of the May 19th proceedings of the tribunal and see for themselves what had happened.

Latif and his Pakistan and Islamabad United franchise teammate, Sharjeel Khan were first suspended and sent back to Pakistan from the second Pakistan Super League in February on charges of spot-fixing.

Later the PCB also suspended four other players, Shahzaib Hasan, Nasir Jamshed, Muhammad Irfan and Muhammad Nawaz in the case.

While Sharjeel and his lawyer appeared before the tribunal in all the hearings and the tribunal is set to give its final verdict on Sharjeel this month, in contrast, Latif has since the start questioned the authority of the PCB Chairman to appoint an anti-corruption tribunal.

He has also raised questions over the members of the tribunal noting they had all been associated with the PCB in the past in some capacity or the other.

The tribunal headed by a former Lahore High Court judge has given Latif until August 9 to submit his final submissions so that it can announce a verdict by September 9th on his case.

(PTI)