'Cheques to Malik were given for business deal'

DUBAI, MAY 16. A Dubai-based businessman has confirmed that he had issued cheques to Salim Malik in 1994 but vehemently denied Rashid Latif's charge that the cheques were payments made by alleged bookies for match-fixing to the Pakistani cricketer.

``It is wrong on Rashid Latif's part to use the cheques issued by me to Salim Malik in 1994 as match-fixing evidence,'' Mr. Khalid Qazi told Gulf News. His statement was in response to the fact that Latif had submitted the cheques to the one-man justice Malik Qayyum inquiry commission to bolster his claim that top Pakistani cricketers, including Salim Malik, were involved in match-fixing.

Mr. Khalid said he had issued the cheques to Malik as a guarantee. ``Malik had asked me to provide the guarantee in a business deal he was getting into. The cheques were not meant to be deposited in his account.''

He asked `how can a cheque with both cash and account payee written on it be a valid document' and pointed out that the two cheques given to Malik had cash as well as Malik's name written on them.

``I have lived in Dubai for 20 years and I have no connection with betting or match-fixing,'' Mr. Qazi said.

The daily said that in fact Mr. Qazi was operating Malik's account with the now defunct Bank of Commerce and Credit International (BCCI) before it went bust in 1991. ``Malik had given me a power of attorney to operate his account with the BCCI in 1990,'' he explained.

Incidentally, Malik was given $35,000 in April 1990 by the Cricketers' Benefit Fund Series (CBFS) for being one of the six beneficiaries during the Sharjah Cup, the newspaper recalled and quoted a BCCI employee as saying that the Pakistani cricketer had opened the bank account only after receiving the benefit purse.

The daily said the cheques issued by Mr. Qazi to Malik in 1994 had the address of Mr. Talaat Butt, a local cricketer and a banker with the Bank of Sharjah.

According to Mr. Butt, ``Malik came to me with the cheques (issued by Mr. Qazi) and I helped him open a zero balance non- resident account.'' ``When the National Bank of Dubai returned the cheques, we closed Malik's account,'' he said. The newspaper said that under the laws of the Central Bank of UAE, a person residing outside the UAE can open an account with banks here without a cheque book facility. And under this law, the Bank of Sharjah opened Malik's account so that he could deposit the cheques issued by Mr. Qazi. Gulf News said it tried to reach Rashid Latif for his comment but he was not available.

Meanwhile, another report in the daily said frantic efforts were on to prevent a life ban on top Pakistani named in the justice Malik Qayyum report.

- UNI

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