Karachi, Dec. 19 (ANI): In a bid to safeguard his chair, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Ijaz Butt has written a letter to President Asif Ali Zardari explaining his absence from a meeting of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Sports.

It is worth mentioning here that committee’s chairman Jamshed Dasti had asked Zardari, as the patron of the PCB, to remove Butt, Chief Operation Officer (COO) Wasim Bari and coach Intikhab Alam after they failed to attend the recent NA meeting.

Butt, in his letter, clarified that he had his own appointments on the day of the meeting (December 17), which prevented him from attending it.

“My absence was because of a pre-arranged meeting on 17th December of my own company on a business of a highly sensitive nature,” The News quoted Butt, as saying.

“In my absence, normally our COO Wasim Bari attends the meetings. However, he had to proceed to Abbottabad for the opening ceremony of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto tournament. Next in line was our Director International Zakir Khan who is undergoing a treatment for hernia and hence could not travel to Islamabad,” Butt’s letter said.

During the meeting, the committee had asked the PCB to explain the selection procedure of the under-19 team and the issues regarding the failure of the board to grant the No Objection Certificates (NOC) to the players on time, due to which Pakistani cricketers were unable to take part in the auctions for the third edition of cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL).

Responding to the query, Butt said the PCB had already sent a detailed response on both the Under-19 World Cup 2010 team as well as the IPL for perusal of the committee before the meeting. (ANI)