High court stays PCB chairman’s elections

The Balochistan High Court (BHC) on Monday issued a stay order against the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman's elections that were scheduled to take place on Tuesday (today).

A division bench comprising Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan and Justice Muhammad Aamir Nawaz Rana issued the stay order till July 17 on a petition filed by PCB management committee member Gul Mohammad Kakar challenging the elections.

The bench also issued notices to the prime minister, Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination and chairman candidate Zaka Ashraf.

The court's intervention added more controversy to the appointment to the PCB’s top post.

Earlier, the PCB chairman's post was a bone of contention between the ruling coalition partners – the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

The PPP wanted former PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf to return to the post, while the PML-N wanted now defunct Management Committee chairman Najam Sethi to continue his job at the PCB.

The PPP says that as its minister heads the Inter-Provincial Coordination Division and PCB is related to the ministry, its chairman should be appointed by the party.

However, the path was cleared for PPP's nominee Ashraf to return as the PCB chairman after Sethi pulled out of the race. Earlier this month, Sethi announced he was not running for the post as he did not want to be a "bone of contention" between the partners in the coalition government.

Citing the atmosphere of uncertainty and instability as inconducive for the board, he said he had decided to step aside from the race for the PCB's chairmanship.

"I don’t want to be a bone of contention between Asif Zardari and Shehbaz Sharif," he had tweeted.
After Sethi’s exit, Ahmed Shehzad Farooq Rana was named the acting chairman and election commissioner for the chairman’s election.

And as per his duties, last week, the PCB, under Rana’s leadership, announced that the elections for the top post would be held on Tuesday (June 27).

In a statement, the PCB said that the election for the chairman’s post would be held at its headquarters in Lahore.
The PCB, in the initial statement, had announced that the polls will be held on June 28 but changed the date to June 27 after the government announced a public holiday on Wednesday.

The date for the elections was announced after the sport’s governing body in Pakistan shared that Rana had formed the PCB’s Board of Governors after the completion of the Management Committee’s dissolution.

The board was formed “in accordance with Para 10 of the PCB Constitution 2014” and in line with a letter sent by the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) regarding the management committee.

The board members include PCB Patron Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's nominees Muhammad Zaka Ashraf and Mustafa Ramday, National Bank of Pakistan, State Bank of Pakistan, Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL), Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC), Larkana Region president, Dera Murad Jamali Region president, Bahawalpur Region president and Hyderabad Region president.