Karachi, Mar 16: Pakistan's long-serving Test umpire, Aleem Dar has been replaced by countryman Ahsan Raza on the International Cricket Council's (ICC) Elite Panel of umpires.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) confirmed on Thursday that Raza had been promoted to the ICC Elite Panel.

Raza, who had a second lease of life after being shot by militants during their attack on the team bus carrying Sri Lankan cricketers and match officials in March, 2009 in Lahore, has served on the ICC International Panel of Umpires since 2010 and is the first to reach the 50 T20I-mark as an umpire.

Raza had to undergo life-saving surgery after the bullets damaged his lungs, but he returned to umpiring after a one-year break.

Overall, he has officiated in 72 T20Is, seven Tests and 41 ODIs.

Raza is the senior-most Pakistani umpire behind Aleem Dar, who has served on the Elite Panel since 2004.

Aleem officiated in a world-record 435 international matches, including a record 144 Tests, 222 ODIs, and 69 T20Is.

Aleem won the 'ICC Umpire of the Year award' for three successive years from 2009.

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Lahore, Jan 15 (PTI): The opening ceremony of the Champions Trophy will be held either on February 16 or 17 and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is confident that India captain Rohit Sharma will be in attendance at the event.

The PCB source also said that it is awaiting communication from the ICC on the schedule of the customary captains' photo-shoot and the pre-event press conference.

The eight-team tournament will get underway on February 19 in Karachi. However, India will play all their matches in Dubai, starting with the clash against Bangladesh on February 20, after refusing to travel to Pakistan owing to security concerns.

The source said PCB has procured all relevant clearances from its government to promptly issue visas to all captains, players and team officials who will come here for pre-tournament events.

"This obviously includes Rohit or any other Indian team player or official or board official," he added.

Another source confirmed to PTI that the PCB has made it clear to the ICC that the opening ceremony, featuring all teams and their captains, will take place in Pakistan.

"This is in line with the usual protocols and since the opening match is on 19th the opening ceremony can be expected either on the 16th or 17th," the source added.

He said the schedule of the opening ceremony would depend on the warm-up matches list.

The source said that recently three Indian nationals, who were a part of the ICC delegation which came to Pakistan, were promptly issued visas once the world body sent their names to the PCB.