Any distant hope Pakistan had of hosting Bangladesh in the near future suffered a blow as the petitioners submitted a prayer for extension of the stay order that ends on May 17.
Daffodil university teacher Khandaker Didarus Salam and a senior Supreme Court lawyer Kamal Hossain Miazi jointly filed a writ petition in the High Court on April 19 seeking cancellation of the Tiger’s Pakistan tour.
A High Court bench comprised of Justice Farid Ahmed and Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif stayed the tour four weeks and issued a rule on the relevant authorities asking them why the decision of the tour should not be declared illegal.
‘We have submitted a prayer for extension of the stay order on Sunday,’ Hasan Azim, the lawyer for the petitioners, told New Age on Monday. ‘Hopefully it will come up in the court by next Thursday and we hope to get a positive result.’
Pakistan hoped for the Bangladesh Cricket Board to lodge an appeal to vacate the stay order, though there was no such initiative either from the Board or from the attorney general’s office.    
The BCB said they have instructed the lawyers to submit a reply to the court, but BCB’s lawyer Mehedi Hasan said on Monday that they are yet to complete the job. 
‘We are preparing the reply and hope to submit it shortly,’ said the BCB lawyer, adding that he is fully aware of the petitioners’ move of seeking an extension to the stay order.  
‘We are aware of the petitioners move for an extension. If they don’t get the extension, the stay order will be lifted and in that case there will be no bar on Bangladesh touring Pakistan,’ opined the BCB lawyer. 
BCB’s plan to tour Pakistan for a one-day international and a Twenty20 match was widely criticised as many still consider Pakistan as an unsafe country. 
Foreign teams have shunned touring Pakistan since a terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team bus in March 2009, which killed seven people and injured seven players.