Home Lightbox PCB to Probe ‘Missing’ $200,000

PCB to Probe ‘Missing’ $200,000

by AFP
Arif Ali—AFP

Arif Ali—AFP

National cricket body claims several unaccounted ticket purchases were made without any records of beneficiaries.

Pakistan’s cricket chiefs on Monday began an inquiry into the spending of $200,000, which they said was not accounted for during the tenure of former chairman Zaka Ashraf.

The spending relates to Ashraf’s rocky 22-month tenure, during which the Islamabad High Court suspended him before he was restored to the post twice and finally sacked again. The musical chairs at the top of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), which has seen the chairmanship alternate between Ashraf and veteran journalist Najam Sethi, has led to widespread ridicule both at home and abroad.

Monday’s move came after the compilation of an internal audit report, according to a board statement. “The management committee took note of the outstanding arrears of approximately Rs. 20 million detailed in the internal audit report for the period Ashraf was chairman,” the statement said, adding the committee would attempt to recover the sum.

Ashraf was first appointed chairman in October 2011 but later suspended by a court over dubious elections. After a new national government took office in 2013, Ashraf fell out of favor. He lost his post for a third time after a Supreme Court order last week which restored Sethi, an appointee of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The case will be heard at length in the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

The internal audit report shows several unaccounted ticket purchases during Pakistan’s 2012-13 tour of India and during the Champion’s Trophy in England in June last year. “Tickets worth of Rs. 759,047 rupees were bought by the PCB and there is no record of whom they were given to. Another Rs. 2.5 million were spent during the Champions Trophy 2013 on tickets, again without records of the beneficiaries,” the report stated.

With international cricket teams refusing to play in Pakistan since an attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore in 2009, the PCB has been hard pressed for income. Ashraf has denied any wrongdoing and termed the allegations “a smear campaign.”

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