Ataur Rehman denies having given any affidavit (4 October 1998)

4 October 1998

Ataur Rehman denies having given any affidavit

The Dawn

LAHORE, Oct 3: The inquiry commission on Saturday stopped recording the statement of fast bowler Ataur Rehman after it felt that he was lying and asked the bowler to reconsider his stance. The proceedings would resume on Thursday.

Justice Malik Muhammad Qayyum discontinued the proceedings when the fast bowler denied having given any affidavit to the effect that he was asked by former captain Wasim Akram to bowl badly in a match in New Zealand.

Pakistan Cricket Board legal advisor Ali Sabtain Fazli confronted Ataur Rehman with an affidavit given before a probe committee headed by a federal Shariat Court judge.

The bowler said the statement was not given by him. He said that he had never signed any such statement and that the signatures on the affidavit for him were forged.

The court adjourning the proceedings said that "at this stage it was felt that Ataur Rehman was not making a full and correct statement. He is being given time to reconsider the matter". It directed the personal appearance on the next date of two members Nusrat Azeem and Mian Munir of the probe committee headed by the Federal Shariat Court judge which had recorded the statement which the bowler has denied.

The court has summoned the original record of the proceedings conducted by the probe committee. The court asked the bowler that he seemed to have changed his stance on somebody's insistence and this could put him in great trouble.

In reply to the first question put to him, Ataur Rehman said that he knew nothing about betting and that during the matches he did not concern himself with anything but cricket.

The PCB legal advisor asked him about the statement attributed to him about a one-day match in New Zealand in which he is said to have admitted that he was offered bribe. Ataur Rehman said that such an incident never took place and that he had never made such a statement. Before the next question could be put to him he requested permission for saying something and then he repeated that he knew nothing about betting or match fixing.

The court said that he had already said this. The bowler seemed a little nervous. Asked about his age, the bowler who started his career in 1992 said that he was 23 years old.

He did not answer the question immediately and did some oral calculation before replying. Asked if he had felt that any member of the cricket team was not playing to his capacity, he replied in the negative and said that the players always did their best for the country.

Source :: The Dawn (www.dawn.com)