PCB in tussle with its own legal advisor

PCB has got into a tussle with its own legal advisor Rizvi who has demanded an apology for issuing him a show cause notice.

Pakistan Cricket Board has got entangled into a tussle with its own legal advisor Tafazzul Rizvi who has demanded an apology from a senior official for issuing him a show cause notice.

As it happened,Rizvi made a statement after the Board delayed submitting documents and other evidences to prove Akhtar’s past disciplinary record as directed by the court following the pacer’s writ petition in the Lahore High Court.

As a result,Wasim Bari,a former Test captain and now Director of Human Resources in the Board,was told to pull up Rizvi.

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Bari issued a show cause notice to Rizvi asking him why action should not be taken against him for violating the Board discipline but Bari certainly didn’t expect to be put into a fix.

“I am not an employee of the Board so how can they issue me a showcause notice. I am not bound by their service rules,” Rizvi said.

The seasoned lawyer who has handled some high profile cases for the Board also made it clear he had made a statement on the Shoaib Akhtar case based on facts.

“The court had directed the Board to submit relevant documents and evidence on November 18 but the matter was delayed. It was only after my statement came that they gave me the proper required material which I then submitted to the court two days ago,” Rizvi said.

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He said his contract with the Board had expired last year and while he was negotiating a new one with the Board he was at the moment not an employee of the Board.

“I am as surprised as you are,” Rizvi said when asked wasn’t the delay by the Board in submitting relevant documents to the court surprising.

Another senior official of the Board,however,claimed that Rizvi had violated the client and lawyer confidentiality agreement by revealing details about the Shoaib Akhtar case.

“A lawyer is not supposed to give such statements even if his client has a problem somewhere. That is what we are upset about,” the official said.

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But in the meantime Rizvi has threatened to initiate legal proceedings against Bari if he does not submit an apology soon.

Sources in the Board say the current set up of the Board headed by Chairman Ejaz Butt was not comfortable with Rizvi as he was employed by former Chairman Nasim Ashraf.

Butt has made it obvious that he does not want people linked to the former Chairman in his set-up,” the source noted.

He said even Chief Operating Officer Saleem Altaf had a reason to be unhappy with Rizvi who had represented the Board when Altaf was sacked last year and filed a case in the Supreme court.