Analysis: How the govt got its timing all wrong

Govt took too long to remove Zaka Ashraf from the top post of Pakistan Cricket Boards.

KARACHI:

Cricket is all about timing. By now it is quite clear that the government has acted in slow motion. It took too long to remove Zaka Ashraf from the top post of Pakistan Cricket Boards (PCB). Surely, it ought to have taken that step soon after the Islamabad High Court reinstated Ashraf -- at least that is what is being whispered in sporting circles.

If Najam Sethi had taken charge of the PCB earlier, he would have attended the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) meeting with the mandate of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is busy establishing friendly ties with India.

In such a case, if the PM had taken up the issue with India at his level, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) might be persuaded to strike a deal with Pakistan and the country might have been spared the agony of the setback as well as the international isolation it had to face.



However, in the actual case, Zaka Ashraf could not get an audience with the prime minister in spite of his multiple written requests. On a closer analysis, it appears that the government did not dismiss him earlier to avoid the allegations of a reprisal.

All this script seems to be written by some really smart guy. Even Najam Sethi had been aware of the Big Three issue for a long time but he did not reveal this before.

The government decided to make the most of the opportunity and thought that people would interpret the dismissal as coming from Ashraf’s mishandling of the issue. But interestingly, people had seen it coming as such news was in circulation for many days.

Here it must be remembered that Zaka Ashraf belongs to the Pakistan Peoples Party and he had severe differences with some members of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). When the Sri Lankan team was attacked in Lahore, he had called it the incompetence of the PML-N led Punjab government. He appears to be paying for such comments.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 11^th, 2014.