Sethi’s nomination in PCB challenged

Petitioner asks court to declare illegal the appointment of Najam Sethi and Ejaz Arif as members PCB BOG

ISLAMABAD: A lawyer has challenged nomination of Najam Sethi and Ejaz Arif as members Board of Governors (BOG) of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and sought court’s intervention to declare a few clauses of the PCB’s Constitution of 2014 as ultra vires of the Constitution of 1973.

Petitioner Tariq Asad submitted that Sethi, being a political person, is controlling all the affairs of PCB and is heading all the important wings of PCB. He is member Board of Governors, chairman Executive Body, chairman HR Committee, member Audit Committee and above all chairman PSL, he said.

The case, with office objections, is fixed for hearing before Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani on Thursday.



The petitioner said that Sethi was in the process of incorporating a private limited company of PSL and now he has his name approved by the prime minister for nomination – along with that of Ejaz Arif – to the BOG of PCB for a period of three years, starting from August 6, 2017.

He said that in line with the PM’s directives, Sethi would become PCB chairman – to be called as elected. He added that Sethi had played another card to get a resolution passed from the general body to appoint him chairman PCB.

In the PCB constitution of 2007, said Asad, the person to be appointed as chairman ought to have high repute and integrity with management experience, whereas in the constitution of 2014, the person to be appointed as chairman could simply be a graduate with sufficient administrative, managerial or financial experience.

He claimed that Sethi “does not possess high repute and integrity and also lacks management experience” as was required under the previous constitution. He added that Gen (retd) Hameed Gul (late) and Gen (retd) Mirza Aslam Beg had alleged that “Sethi is an Indian agent”.

The petitioner said that facts could be confirmed from General Beg as well the record of the Inter-Services Intelligence.

He questioned why Sethi having no awareness of “even the alphabet of cricket” with tainted integrity and repute was sticking with PCB and “is unilaterally its permanent controller till Nawaz Sharif’s regime”.

In PSL’s second edition, due to Sethi’s negligence, wrong planning and bad management, the spot fixing scandal had surfaced, he alleged.

In 2016, he claimed, Rs2.50 billion was spent on tours of different Pakistani teams and on domestic tournaments whereas in the same year, the administrative expenses were amazingly Rs3.30 billion.

The amount, according to Asad, includes money spent extravagantly by Sethi and the management officials on foreign trips and medical treatments etc beyond their entitlement. “Sethi is more enthusiastic to promote his business than cricket,” he alleged.

He also questioned why Sethi is a member of the audit committee himself and why he failed to get an external independent audit of PSL’s first and second editions through any reputed company.

Prima facie, under the PCB Constitution, out of 16 regions only four regions (25 percent) represent the BOG for a period of three years and the remaining 12 regions (75 per cent) remain entirely deprived of their representation in the BOG, according to the petitioner.



“Majority of the full members are from government institutions and under absolute control of the government,” he said, adding that they did not represent regional cricket of Pakistan, not contributing anything at the grass-root level.

“Justice demands that all the regions should have representation in the BOG like other countries so that free elections may be held to elect the PCB chairman on democratic principles and be further represented in the other committees of PCB,” said the petitioner.

He has prayed the court to declare the nomination of Sethi and Arif as ‘illegal’ and a few clauses of the PCB Constitution 2014 as ‘ultra vires’ of the 1973 Constitution.

He has also requested the court to direct the respondents to place the details of administrative expenses, all the details of expenditure incurred by the PCB and an up-to-date report of each and every account to whom the payments were made. He has also sought court’s help to conduct investigation of irregularities and illegalities.