Election of PCB chairman: IHC orders ECP to hold polls on Nov 2

Lahore High Court withdraws objection against petition seeking to set aside the Interim Management Committee.

ISLAMABAD/ LAHORE:

Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to conduct election for the slot of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman next month.

Hearing a contempt application filed by a former PCB member Ahmed Nawaz, Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui directed the ECP to hold the election on November 2.

The petitioner had contended in his application that the former acting PCB chief Najam Sethi had committed contempt of court by not holding the PCB election in 90 days despite the IHC’s order on July 3.

The counsel for the petitioner Advocate Abdul Razzak argued that despite the court’s edict, Sethi had not announced the election date even after the given time. “Sethi has his own agenda and he is personally interested in becoming the head of the cricketing authority,” Razzak claimed.



Replying to the query of the court as to why the ECP had failed to hold election for the PCB chairman, the ECP representative said it was not the ECP’s mandate to conduct PCB’s election.

The court rejected this excuse, saying that if the ECP could conduct Pakistan Engineering Council’s (PEC) it could also hold the PCB’s election, which has a big electoral college.  The ECP officer assured the court that it would organise the polls as per the court’s directives.

Representing the PCB, advocate Tafazul Hussain Rizvi opposed the argument of the petitioner and claimed that the authority was already ready to hold election.

He said Najam Sethi was no more acting chairman of the authority. “Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif constituted an interim management committee on October 18 and after election, the committee will be dissolved as well,” he said.

He requested the court to give the PCB 30-days’ time as 30% of its members, according to him, were engaged in litigation. The court however turned down his request.

LHC withdraws objection

In a related development Lahore High Court (LHC) removed objection on a petition, challenging the formation of an ad-hoc committee by the prime minister to run the PCB’s affairs.

Justice Khalid Mahmood Khan removed the objection and ordered to transfer the case to another bench.

The LHC registrar’s office had raised objection on the petition filed by Aftab Masood on the ground that neither the petitioner was an aggrieved person, nor had a locus standi to file it.

The petitioner had maintained that the prime minister – now also the patron-in-chief of the PCB – was not authorised to constitute an Interim Management Committee (IMC) as he had acted beyond his powers. He requested the court to set aside the interim management committee and direct the prime minister to hold elections.

The prime minister had dissolved the PCB and constituted an IMC to run the game’s affairs in the country.

The committee – comprising Najam Sethi, former cricketers Zaheer Abbas and Haroon Rasheed, former PCB chairman Shaheryar Khan and a former team manager Naveed Cheema – had unanimously elected  Sethi as its chairman, who represented Pakistan at the ICC Board meeting in London on Friday and Saturday last.

“An IMC has been constituted to ensure that PCB remains enabled to continue to perform day-to-day domestic and international functions for the promotion of the game and in line with the directions of the court,” said a PCB media release, “The supersession of the Board shall remain in force for a period of not more than 90 days unless extended by the Patron [PM].”

Published in The Express Tribune, October 22^nd, 2013.