ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — A judge in Pakistan said yesterday that suspended cricketers could not be summoned to face allegations of treason because of the ongoing investigations into match fixing allegations against them.

Chief justice Lahore High Court Khawaja Sharif yesterday set a September 22 hearing date on the petition filed by Ishtiaq Ahmed Chaudhry.

In his petition, Chaudhry asked that treason charges be laid against any Pakistan player found guilty in cricket’s latest match-fixing investigation. He also called for guilty players to be banned for life and have their assets seized.

“In my petition I have requested the court that four cricketers, Salman Butt, Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir should be summoned,” Chaudhry told the Associated Press.

Chaudhry hoped that by September 22 lots of things would get clear from the Scotland Yard’s investigation in London.

The ICC has provisionally suspended Butt, Amir and Asif after a British newspaper alleged they were paid to deliberately bowl no-balls in a Test match against England. They have 14 days to decide whether they want to appeal against the suspension.

An official from the sports ministry also told the court that Pakistan Cricket Board was an autonomous body, but requested that since the investigations were pending against the three cricketers it was premature to say anything on the issue.

The cricket board’s legal adviser Tafazzul Rizvi has said that suspended players had to fight their appeals on their own and the PCB would only monitor.

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