Chairman of Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) Independent Disciplinary Panel, Justice (retired) Fazal-e-Miran Chauhan, submitted his final report on Umar Akmal where he said that the cricketer did not seem willing to remorse and nor did he apologise for failing to report approaches by bookies.
The 29-year-old Umar was banned from all forms of cricket last week by the Disciplinary Panel for three years for failing to report spot-fixing offers during the Pakistan Super League this year.
Justice Chauhan in his final report said, “It appears that he (Umar Akmal) is not prepared to show remorse and seek an apology, make admission that he failed to fulfill his responsibility under Anti-Corruption Code, Article 2.4., rather he tried to take refuge under the pretext that in the past whenever any such approaches were made, the matter was reported by him.”
“As far as Charge No.1 is concerned, I do not see any circumstances to mitigate the nature of the offence, particularly when the participant has not cooperated with the PCB Department and the Investigating team,” he said.
Earlier, former PCB chairman Najmal Sethi had made a starking claim and said that Umar Akmal suffers from epilepsy and requires treatment.
“We had medical reports that confirmed he suffered from epilepsy fits and we called him back from the West Indies. When I met him I told him it was a serious problem and he needed to take a break and get proper treatment. But he was not willing to accept this. He was mentally not there,” Sethi told a TV Channel as quoted by PTI.
“Anyway I stopped him from playing for two months but later on we sent the medical reports to the selectors and left it to them because I didn’t like to interfere in their work.” Epilepsy is a central nervous system (neurological) disorder in which brain activity becomes abnormal, causing seizures or periods of unusual behaviour, sensations, and sometimes loss of awareness,” he added.