The Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV) has sacked eight contractual employees including its in-house analyst and former Pakistan cricket team captain and wicketkeeper Rashid Latif.
Latif was working as an analyst on Game On Hai, a talkshow on PTV Sports hosted by Dr Nauman Niaz.
Naeem Bukhari, who was appointed the PTV chairman in November, approved the sackings in a meeting with the board of directors.
In a notification, the channel cited shortage of funds for terminating their contracts. It has 3,560 full-time workers and is looking to reduce the number of contractual employees.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting okayed the move as well.
Latif had been a regular on PTV Sports for years where he discussed cricket alongside host Dr Nauman Niaz and a variety of other former crickets.
As per the sacking order, Latif had joined PTV in 2016 and was the second-highest paid employee on the list, drawing a salary of Rs950,000.
The order explained that "PTV is short of finances. Payments due to PTV are not forthcoming and already has 3,560 regular employees."
It further said that it was decided to drastically reduce the number of contract employees on high salaries and therefore the dismissal of the eight employees, of which Latif is a part, was recommended.
Latif, over the past few months, has been active on YouTube where he runs a channel named Caught Behind alongside Dr Niaz.