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Pakistan's Umar Akmal suspended under anti-corruption code

Pakistan's perennial problem-maker Umar Akmal was suspended Thursday under an anti-corruption rule, cricket officials announced, sidelining him from the Pakistan Super League pending an inquiry.

The 29-year-old has received numerous fines and suspensions in his 11-year career, and was arrested in 2014 after violating traffic rules in his native Lahore.


Without giving details about the latest case, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said Umar had been suspended and would not play in the Pakistan Super League (PSL), which starts Thursday in Karachi.

"He cannot take part in any cricket-related activity pending the investigation being carried out by PCB's anti-corruption unit," the board said in a statement.

"As this is an ongoing investigation, the PCB will not make any further comments."

Umar was due to play for defending champions Quetta Gladiators in the six-team PSL.

Often described as a talented yet undisciplined cricketer, Umar has played 16 Tests, 121 one-day internationals and 84 Twenty20 internationals since his debut in 2009.

He last played for Pakistan in the Twenty20 series against Sri Lanka four months ago, failing to score in both matches.

Earlier this month, the PCB warned Umar over his conduct during a fitness test where he allegedly made crude remarks to a trainer.

Last year, he was fined 20 percent of his match fee for violating the team's curfew in Dubai after he went partying.

Umar also had run-ins with Pakistan's former head coach Mickey Arthur, who sent him home after he failed a fitness test just weeks before the 2017 Champions Trophy in Britain.

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Britain is seeking to attract new pharmaceutical investment as part of its plan to strengthen the life sciences sector, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said during meetings in Washington this week. “We do need to make sure that we are an attractive place for pharmaceuticals, and that includes on pricing, but in return for that, we want to see more investment flow to Britain,” Reeves told reporters.

Recent ABPI report, ‘Creating the conditions for investment and growth’, The UK’s pharmaceutical industry is integral to both the country’s health and growth missions, contributing £17.6 billion in direct gross value added (GVA) annually and supporting 126,000 high-skilled jobs across the nation. It also invests more in research and development (R&D) than any other sector. Yet inward life sciences foreign direct investment (FDI) fell by 58per cent, from £1,897 million in 2021 to £795 million in 2023, while pharmaceutical R&D investment in the UK lagged behind global growth trends, costing an estimated £1.3 billion in lost investment in 2023 alone.

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