In the report, published after some delay in May 2000, Justice Qayyum banned Malik and Rehman for life from the game, and censured Wasim Akram, Mushtaq Ahmed, Waqar Younis, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Akram Raza and Saeed Anwar with monetary fines as well as recommendations, in some cases, to limit their involvement in the game. The report was the result of a year-long inquiry, between September 1998 and September 1999, held in a court room at the Lahore High Court.

Justice Qayyum, and Ali Sibtain Fazli, the lawyer who worked with him through the inquiry, argued, however, that the nature of the inquiry meant the yardsticks for punishment fell somewhere between a criminal and civil case. Hard evidence had always been lacking for harsher punishments, but the sheer weight of testimonies meant something had to be done; the result was the more measured sentences that came out. As Justice Qayyum concluded in the report itself, "…it must also be added that this Commission is aware of what consequences a preliminary, tentative finding of guilt in this Report will have on the career of a player. If this Report is released to the public, a finding of guilt are likely to effectively amount to a conviction. The player is likely to lose his livelihood for the time being and possibly the prime of his career."

As an indicator of Justice Qayyum's centrality to the country's proceedings at the time, he was also the sitting judge in an infamous case of political corruption against the late Benazir Bhutto and her husband Asif Zardari at the same time as the match-fixing inquiry was running.