Karachi: Mohammad Asif will have to pay up the money that the Pakistan Cricket Board spent on defending him in the drug possession case in Dubai if he is found guilty in the internal inquiry to be conducted by the PCB.
A three-member fact-finding committee has been instituted by the PCB which will submit its recommendations on the matter to the Board in two weeks' time, PCB chairman Nasim Ashraf said after a governing body meeting in Lahore on Saturday.
Ashraf said Asif would be ineligible to play until the committee completes its inquiry and submits its report. The PCB chief said strict action would be taken against the lanky pacer if he is found guilty, including being asked to reimburse the money spent on him by the Board.
"The governing body today unanimously decided that if Asif is found of having committed any wrong or used drugs in this case severe action would be taken against him and all such players. And all such expenses incurred on his case would be paid by Asif," Ashraf said.
Asif returned from Dubai yesterday after the public prosecutor and attorney general didn't press any charges against him.
He was detained at the Dubai airport on June 1 while returning from India to Pakistan for allegedly carrying contraband drugs.
Asif, later, denied that the substance recovered from him was any drug and claimed it was a medicine prescribed by a Hakeem one month ago in Pakistan.
The pacer also insisted that he never used drugs or banned substances in his life.
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