Acting chairman named to elect new PCB head

Justice (retired) Afzaal Haider is tasked to conduct elections in 30 days

KARACHI: Justice (retd) Afzaal Haider was named as the acting chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and has been tasked with holding elections for the new head of the board within 30 days.

Current PCB Chairman Shaharyar Khan’s three-year term ends on August 8, after which Haider will formulate a new Board of Governors (BoG).

Haider — set to receive the responsibilities in a few days at the Gaddafi Stadium — will also act as the new Election Commissioner and will be assisted by Deputy Election Commissioner Ahmed Shehzad Farooq Rana.

His first task as the Election Commissioner will be to ask for nominations from the selected regions and departments for the coveted PCB Chairman post. If more than one nomination is received, then elections will be held.

However, there are strong chances that current Executive Committee head Najam Sethi will be elected as the new chairman without any opposition.

Sethi, 69, is considered to be the most sought-after person to fill the PCB Chairman’s post when Shaharyar steps down, courtesy the former’s successful initiative of organising Pakistan Super League’s two editions — the second one featuring a landmark final in Lahore.

Meanwhile, he also boasts worthwhile credentials as the head of PCB’s three-man Executive Committee.

Sethi was recently named in the BoG along with Arif Ejaz by the patron of the PCB, the sitting Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif.

Earlier, Shaharyar was also elected unopposed for his three-year term when Justice Sair Ali conducted elections as the Election Commissioner.

Shaharyar, 83, had forwarded his resignation to the Patron a few months ago but was asked to complete his term. He is currently in England on a holiday, but will return to Pakistan soon to preside over a BoG meeting.

Shahayar’s replacement in BoG

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

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 11th 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.