PSL separation: Notices issued to PCB patron, board’s chairman

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court has issued notices to the patron in chief of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and the chairman of its Board of Governors (BoG) after the separation of its flagship cricket league and the cricket board was challenged.

Hearing the petition on Friday challenging the transformation of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) into a private limited company, Justice Aamer Farooq of the IHC issued notices to PCB’s Patron in Chief– Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif through his principal secretary – and the BoG of PCB through its chairman.

Muhammad Tahir, a senior architect of the Civil Society – a registered trust, through his counsel Tariq Asad, had approached the IHC against a resolution passed by the BoG in its 42nd meeting allowing the PCB to form a separate private limited company for PSL.

He listed the prime minister, PCB, PSL Chairman Najam Sethi, National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) as respondents.

Tahir argued that none of the cricket playing countries had their cricket leagues separate from the main cricket board.

On November 8, the BoG passed a resolution and granted approval “to register Pakistan Super League (PSL) as an independent Private Limited Company being a separate entity to be incorporated and owned by private persons and to be governed by its own independent Governing Body.”

The counsel said that it was a dubious and unjustifiable resolution and in excess of its powers and functions conferred to it by the Constitution of PCB and law of the land and is thus without lawful authority and of no legal effect.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 17^th, 2016.