PCB sets up committee to look into Haider issue

The PCB has set up a disciplinary committee to look into Zulqarnain Haider's response to a letter the board sent the wicketkeeper on December 6, 2010 asking him to explain why he fled the team in UAE and sought asylum in England.

The committee comprising Sultan Rana, Wasim Ahmed and Mohammad Awais, will be assisted by the board's legal advisor Taffazul Rizvi. It will begin to function after the Pakistan team and officials return from the tour of Ireland later this month.

Haider had gone missing from the Pakistan team's hotel in Dubai on the morning of the fifth and final ODI against South Africa on November 8, and later said he had received death threats from unidentified people seeking to draw him into match-fixing. He fled to the UK to seek protection and filed an application for asylum that hinged on the nature of the information he was able to divulge, as the extraordinary nature of his case appeared to fall outside the usual conditions required of a person seeking refugee status.

In the aftermath of his flight, Haider announced his international retirement and his contract with the PCB was suspended. A fact-finding committee subsequently set-up by the board to look into the affair failed to find any clear motives behind his actions.

In April 2011, five and a half months after fleeing to London, Haider returned to Pakistan, having secured security assurances from the government about his safety and that of his family.