Dubai, June 5 : Denying news reports that Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Asif's release from detention in Dubai was imminent, a PCB official has said that he is likely to remain in detention for another three-four days over charges of possessing hashish.

The delay in hearing Asif's case has been due to a death in the UAE's royal family, which generally means that the various states will observe a period of mourning now over the next few days and that public offices may remain closed, reported cricinfo.com.

Asif has been detained at Dubai International Airport since Sunday after an allegedly contraband substance was found in his wallet, and since then, the PCB has appointed legal counsel for him and sent a senior board official to Dubai to handle the case.

Discussions reportedly took place between Asif's lawyer and prosecutors yesterday, though with no immediate resolution.

A PCB official said that results from a urine test authorities carried out on Asif are still awaited, as are the results of a test on the substance itself. The fact that it has taken them so long to get results is in itself a concern, the official said.

Over the past couple of days, news reports had suggested that charges against Asif had been dropped. Some of the Pakistani papers even quoted the Pakistani ambassador to the UAE as saying that and that Asif was due to head back to Pakistan on the first available flight.

Declining all such reports, the PCB official said: "These are incorrect as far as we know. The charges haven't even been laid against him so far. As far as we know of the process, the airport prosecutor lays the charges down and passes on to the public prosecutor who will then decide whether or not this should go to trial. That process, we have been told, can take three to four days. But we are concerned that they have not come back still with results of the urine test, which they carried out on Sunday and the tests on the substance."

ANI