PCB’s former chief Dr Zafar Altaf dies

He served as an academic, a bureaucrat, and a sports administrator

ISLAMABAD: Former PCB chief, secretary federal agriculture ministry and Pakistan Agriculture Research Council chairman Dr Zafar Altaf died in Islamabad on Saturday. He was 74.

Born in Agra, India, in 1941, Altaf studied psychology at the University of Punjab before earning his doctorate in economics at the University of Birmingham, UK.

He played first class cricket from 1958 to 1972, and represented Lahore, Punjab University, Karachi, and Rawalpindi, among other teams.



Along the way, he had joined the government of Pakistan as a civil servant and rose up the ladder to federal agriculture secretary, a post he held for much of the 1990s.  He also served two stints as PARC chairman.

As a cricket administrator, Altaf’s first role was as secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in Pakistan from 1972 to 1975 during the chairmanship of Abdul Hafeez Kardar. He also had a few stints as a member of the selection board, which he also headed from 1994 to 1996, and as manager of the national team including for the 1999 World Cup, where Pakistan lost the final to Australia.

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He served as PCB chairman for three months, from October to December 1999. Dr Altaf also taught economics at various universities after retiring from government service.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6^th, 2015.