Sethi named among Board of Governors, again

PSL Chairman’s chances of bagging coveted board chief’s post further strengthen

Pakistan Super League (PSL) Chairman Najam Sethi was on Saturday named among Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) Board of Governors (BoG) by the Patron of the board, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

The nomination has further strengthened the chances of the 69-year-old to replace current PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan once the latter’s term ends in August this year.

Shaharyar, who is 83 now, earlier tendered his resignation to the PM, but was asked to complete his tenure and announced that he will not contest for the most coveted post again after his current term ends.

This leaves Sethi as the most sought-after person to fill the vacant post when the Patron makes the move to pick the new chairman, courtesy the former’s successful initiative of organising PSL. Meanwhile, he also boasts worthwhile credentials as the head of PCB three-man Executive Committee.

According to the PCB’s constitution, the Patron’s request to hold new elections will prompt a meeting of the BoG, which will select one of the members amongst themselves through majority vote.

The whole process is to be completed within a four-week period after the position of the PCB chairman is left vacant.

The next elected PCB Chairman will sit till 2020 — a three-year term in accordance with the constitution.

Shahayar’s replacement in BoG

Among the 10 members of the BoG, two are appointed by the Patron and the apart from Sethi, a prominent corporate figure Arif Ejaz was named.

Ejaz is a renowned corporate executive who has worked as Chief Executive Officer for Adamjee Insurance and KSB Pumps Industries, according to ESPNcricinfo. He had also served as Director of the Lahore Stock Exchange, Hub Power Company Limited, Non-Executive Director Kohinoor Textile Industries and was on the board at Lahore University of Management Sciences, National Refinery Ltd., Pakistan Steel Mills Corp.

He will fill the space left by Shaharyar in the BoG.

Other members of BoG

The members of the BoG were reduced from 14 to 10 in 2014 which now constitutes of four representatives of regional teams (top four teams from the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy) and four representatives of services organisations (the top four department sides).

There is an 11^th member of the BoG as well, who is an ex oficio but a non-voting member courtesy being an official of the inter-provincial coordination committee.

The new four regional representatives will be named by the Election Commissioner after discussion with the current, functional BoG on July 31.

Presently, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Karachi and Peshawar have their representatives sitting in the BoG, but if the rules of rotation are applied, representatives of Lahore, FATA, Faisalabad and Multan are set to earn a place among the BoG.

Meanwhile, among the services organisations, WAPDA and UBL are supposed to retain their positions while HBL and SSGC are going to replace SNGPL and NBP.