Ashraf elected PCB chairman

Question raised on absence of Karachi, Lahore associations’ from electoral process.

ISLAMABAD:

Zaka Ashraf, handpicked by President Asif Ali Zardari to run the country’s cricket board two years ago, has been elected for a four-year term as the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman.

The development means Ashraf has become the first elected chief of the PCB as the board moves towards implementing its new constitution, formed to meet the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) requirement of ridding government interference in the management of its member bodies.

However, questions were raised on the process through which Ashraf has been elected that saw the absence of two major regional associations – Karachi and Lahore.

The development took place in Islamabad during the first meeting of the Board of Governors (BOG) under the new constitution, drafted in February.

Five departments and as many associations voted to elect the new chairman from two candidates nominated by Patron Zardari also including former Lahore Stock Exchange chairman Aftab Ahmad Khan.

Earlier, the four-member nomination committee comprising BOG Naveed Akram Cheema and Mohammad Rafiq Bughio besides Patron’s appointed Justice (retd) Maulvi Anwarul Haq Consultant (Legal Affairs) and President’s Sect and Ch Qamar Zaman, Secretary (Education and Training), unanimously recommended the name of Ashraf in its first meeting in Islamabad after interviewing both candidates.

Thereafter, BOG reassembled and unanimously endorsed Ashraf, the nominee of the Patron and the Nomination Committee, to be the chairman for four years with effect from May 8, 2013.

‘Karachi, Lahore’s absence unfair’

Meanwhile, a regional association official raised questions over the process that did not feature Karachi and Lahore bodies.

“Larkana and Dera Murad Jamali are electing the chairman, while Karachi and Lahore were snubbed,” the official said, while pointing out the presence of Bughio and Qaisar Khan Jamali, who represented Larkana Dera Murad Jamali respectively.

“These regions don’t even have proper teams and were created unnecessarily because of which the turn of major regions including Sialkot was pushed back. These associations have little role in Pakistan cricket and preferring them over Karachi and Lahore is raising doubt in the transparency of this process.”

‘Nothing to do with general elections’

However, an official, who attended the meeting, said it was the right of the board to tag any board and there were no constitutional violations.

“The meeting was going to take place anyway and has nothing to do with the upcoming general elections. This is a matter relevant to the president who will remain after the May 11 polls and there were no insecurities to Ashraf.”

Interestingly, the PCB’s press statement on the development did not mention the name of regions and associations that were represented in the process.

Sialkot, Faisalabad file petition

Following the development, regional cricket associations of Sialkot and Faisalabad filed a petition in the Lahore High Court (LHC). The process, which saw Ashraf become the first elected PCB chairman, was not a transparent one, said a Faisalabad Regional Cricket Association official. The LHC, according to the official, has summoned the PCB top brass and asked them to explain the BOG meeting, held yesterday, on May 8.

Former captain Rashid Latif also announced filing a similar petition in the Sindh High Court (SHC) against the development.

“After my first petition, the PCB introduced a few amendments to its constitution,” said Latif. “But the process is not as democratic as it should be. There are loopholes [in the new constitution] which I want to rectify. I have decided to file another petition in the SHC tomorrow against the unlawful election of the PCB chairman.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 9^th, 2013.

Correction: An earlier version of the article mentioned the date incorrectly in the third last paragraph. The error has been rectified.