The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Wednesday unveiled a three-man tribunal that will hear doping charges against fast bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif, possibly as early as this week.

The tribunal will be chaired by barrister Shahid Hamid and will also include former Test captain and coach Intikhab Alam and an unnamed doctor who is an expert on doping, PCB chairman Nasim Ashraf said.

New-ball pairing Akhtar and Asif were sent home from the Champions League in India on Monday after testing positive for the banned steroid nandrolone. They are waiting for the results of 'B' samples.

"Shoaib and Asif are likely to appear before the tribunal later this week," cricket chief Ashraf told reporters at a press conference in the southern city of Karachi.

"On the recommendation of the tribunal and of the overall findings we will take action. The responsibility is on the alleged offenders (to prove their innocence) because it is an individual act," he said.

Tribunal chairman Hamid represented former Pakistan player Salim Malik during a match-fixing inquiry in 1998 but left midway through the case. Malik was given a life ban in 2000.

The doctor on the tribunal will be named on Thursday, the PCB said.

Ashraf vowed on Tuesday to take a zero tolerance approach to doping, while adding that Akhtar and Asif would be allowed to fight their cases through checks on their 'B' samples.

(Article: Copyright © 2006 AFP)