Next LHC hearing of PSL franchises case against PCB on Wednesday

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court has set Wednesday as the next day of hearing in the case filed by all six franchises of the HBL Pakistan Super League (PSL) against the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) over some financial issues.

Justice Sajid Mahmood Sethi on Friday issued notices to all the parties for Wednesday hearing.

All the franchises have been asked by the PCB to deposit the bank guarantee money by Sept 25 (Friday) but the owners have objected that first the PCB should introduce a new model that it has devised for the PSL. The franchises are more interested in meeting with the PCB to finalise the financial model which is pending for the last three years.

Furthermore, the franchises also have concerns that since the accounts of the last edition of the PSL-5 are still incomplete because the remaining four matches are yet to be held in November, they are reluctant to deposit the bank guarantee money at this stage.

Meanwhile, franchises’ lawyer Salman Raja told Dawn that as the petition had been accepted, there would be no adverse action the PCB would take against the franchises for not depositing the bank guarantee money, the deadline for which passed on Friday.

PCB’s lawyer Taffazul Rizvi, though raised an objection with regard to the maintainability of the petition and also apprised the Justice that the PCB had twice this week invited the franchise owners to meet and discuss the financial model for HBL PSL with a view towards redressing grievances in good faith. However, the honourable judge admitted the writ and summoned the notice to the party for Wednesday.