PCB ends contract with long-time legal advisor

Karachi: The Pakistan Cricket Board has ended the contract of its long-serving legal advisor Tafazzul Rizvi after he advised it to seek Attorney General`s opinion to resolve the quagmire surrounding the reinstatement of Zaka Ashraf as the PCB Chairman.

Rizvi said he had been released from his contract after he sent a mail to the PCB`s Chief Operating Officer advising him against the holding of the governing body meeting yesterday. Tafazzul Rizvi wrote to the Board on Friday after it was announced that Ashraf would chair a meeting of the governing board on Saturday in Lahore. "As legal advisor of the Board, I was compelled to do my duty. Unfortunately it appears my intentions were misinterpreted," Rizvi said. The legal advisor has raised questions over the status of the interim management committee which was constituted by the government through a notification last October and then given a 90-day extension on January 10. Rizvi claims the Islamabad High Court order reinstating Ashraf as Chairman offers no clarity on the status of the IMC. "PCB has in the past also been obtaining legal opinion from the Attorney General Pakistan. Similarly in this issue also, the AG should be consulted so that they are no legal quagmires," Rizvi said.