Confusion ends: IHC restores Najam Sethi till Nov 7

The court set aside the order passed on October 29, in which Najam Sethi was suspended.

ISLAMABAD:

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday restored former acting chairman Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Najam Sethi as the board chairman till November 7 and set aside the single bench order.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Riaz Ahmed Khan and Justice Noorul Haq N Qureshi was hearing the Inter-Court Appeals filed by PCB, Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) and former chairman Zaka Ashraf, at the time of his removal. The court set aside the order passed by Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui on October 29, in which Najam Sethi was suspended and the court had ordered for elections to be held at the end of November.

The division bench noted that in the October 29 single bench hearing, the court had ordered maintaining the status quo however the term ‘status quo’ was omitted in the written verdict. Further confusion was created when a two-member bench had granted a stay order against the court decision that suspended Najam Sethi.

After hearing the appeals, the court noted that status quo shall remain as on October 29. The court also granted a stay order against the release of Rs2.5 million for conduction the elections. It is noted that Justice Siddiqui had appointed Justice (retd) Munir A Sheikh as an election commissioner for conducting elections.

During the course of the hearing Asma Jahangir, representing IPC argued that Justice Siddiqui had ordered Chief Operation Officer (COP) of PCB to release Rs2.5million for the election despite of the fact that he did not have signing authority.

She argued that on the court’s direction, Najam Sethi was appointed and after the establishment of Interim Management Committee (IMC), things were going in the right direction; however, due to Justice Siddiqui’s order, the cricket board had lost Rs200 million and the entire system was affected.

“The government is really committed to improve the standards of cricket and this is the only sport in the country which is tax paid,” she added. Jahangir claimed that in the last decade the sport had generated taxes of Rs350 million. She said the International Cricket Council in a letter expressed serious concerns over the involvement of judiciary in the board’s affairs.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 5^th, 2013.