Karachi: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Monday slammed Dr Waqar Ahmad, a member of the drug tribunal, for his reported comments that Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammed Asif could be pardoned, and said that such statement could jeopardise the “independent nature of the tribunal.”

Ahmad had created a flutter on Sunday by suggesting that the two pace bowlers could be pardoned if it was true that they had taken the banned substance nandrolone inadvertently. “We are looking into this matter on urgent basis as no member of the tribunal is supposed to interact with the media or give statements during the proceedings,” PCB director (operations) Saleem Altaf said.

“We are trying to confirm first whether Dr Waqar has actually said what has been reported in the first place. Because such statements, if they have been given, jeopardise the independent nature of the tribunal and might project a wrong image of what is an impartial inquiry,” he said.

Dr Ahmad apparently told a radio channel: “Straight away there is no factor of punishment but it has to be checked whether this banned substance came into their body by accident or not.”

Meanwhile, the PCB has been accused of violating the International Cricket Council (ICC)’s Anti-Doping Code (ADC) in publicly exposing the names of Shoaib and Asif before their guilt was established.

President of the Sports Medicine Association of Pakistan, Dr Danish Zaheer, has said that as per the ADC Clause 16.2, under the head ‘Public Disclosures’, names could not be revealed before the due process was completed, a newspaper reported. (PTI)