National Assembly standing committee on sports, while condemning the alleged involvement of Pakistani cricketers in match-fixing, has demanded of the government to immediately dissolve the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), otherwise "the Committee would tender resignation en bloc".
The Committee recommended that the PCB should be dissolved immediately to constitute a new board on ad hoc basis. The Committee also recommended that stern action must be taken against the members of management committee and the players involved in match fixing. The Committee met on Monday at Parliament House under its Chairman Iqbal Muhammad Ali Khan.
The Committee recommended that a new Management Committee of PCB should be sent aboard to replace the existing Management Committee and to call back the players who are involved in match fixing.
The members of the standing committee severely criticised the cricket team and said, "Pakistan cricket team damaged the image of Pakistan. The players who are involved in the scandal must be sent to Adiala Jail when they land at Islamabad airport." They said: "Sports improve image of countries and relations with others countries, but our cricket team degraded the name of Pakistan". They said that PCB should be dissolved immediately. However, if the government did not do so they shall tender resignation en bloc.
Committee Chairman that "our heads were bowed with shame due to the shocking incident. All this happened under the nose of Management Committee. What was our management Committee doing? What was security officer Colonel Najum doing? Our security officers failed to maintain check over the team."
"What are the board cells of our Selection committee doing?" committee chairman said. He said that the existing management and the players who are allegedly involved in the match fixing should be called back immediately and new management and new players be sent to replace the alleged players. "Corrupt and Butt mafias are sitting in Cricket Board," he said, adding that "Zulqurnain was not injured. But he was not included in the team." "In this regard, I wrote a letter to President Asif Ali Zardari and DG FIA immediately after the incident," he said.
He said that on the one hand "our nation is facing massive flood while on the other our players are involved in corruption and scandals". He said that Pakistani cricket team damaged the image of Pakistan while donor agencies already are not trusting the government due corruption.
The Secretary of Sports Ministry said that he phoned PCB Chairman Ijaz Butt and Waseem Bari but their cell phones were off. He said that after this he wrote a letter to Wajid Shamsul Hassan, Pakistan's Ambassador to UK, to conduct inquiry in the incident. Earlier, the standing committee also discussed the performance of Pakistan Snooker and Body Building Federation. The committee directed the Ministry of Sports and Pakistan Sports Board to sponsor the fund the international events of Snooker and Body Building players. MNAs Anayat Ali Shah, Nasim Akhtar Chaudhry, Azmat Lal, Ms Tasneem Siddiqui, Naseer Bhutta, Ghias Ahmed Mela, Tayyab Hussain, Muzafar-ul-Mulk and Muhammad Pervaz attended the meeting.