Zaha Ashraf Named as Chairman of PCB Management Committee

The Pakistan government has appointed a 10-member committee of the newly formed PCB Pakistan Cricket Board, led by Zaka Ashraf for four months.

Ashraf as the New Chairman of PCB management committee

Zaha Ashraf replaces Natham Sethi as Chairman of PCB, being supported by the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), will deal with the affairs of PCB with the approval of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who holds the position of the Patron of PCB.

The PCB management committee consists of ten members, namely Kalim Ullah Khan, Ashafaq Akhtar, Mussadiq Islam, Azmat Parvez, Zaheer Abbas, Khurram Soomro, Khawaja Nadeem, Mustafa Ramday, and Zulfiqar Malik.

The first meeting of the management committee will be held in Lahore on Thursday. Ahmed Shehzad Farooq Rana was replaced from his duties as PCB election commissioner, appointing Supreme Court advocate Mahmood Iqbal Khakwani in his place.

The nature of the PCB boards is to continue the preparation for the upcoming ODI World Cup 2023 in India. As the Pakistan team visited India last time in 2012, they are visiting again for the World Cup 2023.

Pakistan Cricket Board had already planned on sending delegates to visit the stadiums. By the reports given by the delegates, the PCB will give clearance for the Pakistan team to visit India.

Baluchistan High Court Accepts Kakar’s Case on PCB Management

PCB’s election for its new chairman post got postponed on June 26 after the petition of Gul Mohammad Kakar, a former member of the PCB Management Committee, was accepted by the Baluchistan High Court. The hearing is set for July 17.

Before the former chairman Najam Sethi dropped out of the election, he had formed a 10-member board of governors which also had two direct nominees from the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif, the patron of the PCB.

The case was gone for a hearing which claimed the governing board of the PCB, being the major part of selecting the new chairman, was formed in violation of the 2014 constitution. The Court did not hear the PCB’s argument, issuing notice to all stakeholders to be present in the next hearing.

Petitions Against PCB Election Process

On Monday morning, before Zaka Ashraf became PCB chairman, a number of written petitions were filed in different courts in Pakistan to stop the whole election process. The Lahore High Court has admitted at least three petitions, combining them into one hearing, which was adjourned until Tuesday.

The PCB’s board is working with ten members: four regional representatives, four representatives from services, and two members nominated by the Prime Minister. These members would then conduct an election to choose the next chairman. It is the Prime Minister’s idea on appointing the PCB board of governors who become the chairman for a three-year term, and Ashraf was the overwhelming favorite.

Najam Sethi was the most recent head of the PCB, but he was the temporary chairman, tasked with bringing back the 2014 constitution. He was working with a management committee and he was the one to take the issue to the courts about the election for the appointment of a New chairman. They claimed that the PCB board was an improper setup, emphasizing that it disregarded a list of nominees that Sethi had put forward.

The PCB election commissioner and acting chairman, Ahmed Shehzad Farooq Rana, rejected them and replaced them with representatives of Larkana, Dera Murad Jamali, Bahawalpur, and Hyderabad. This difference of opinion is the reason the matter has been taken to court.

These are the proceedings dated from 2013 and 2014 when Sethi launched a legal offensive case against Ashraf. The pair were involved in a protracted battle for the PCB chairman post, with the position switching hands several times. Ashraf won in court but was stopped by then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif which led to Sethi taking control.

Now after all these hearings in the court and the intervention of Prime ministers these years, Zaka Ashraf have been appointed as the chairman of the Newly formed Pakistan Cricket Board, serving for four months on accounting for the nearing dates of ICC World Cup 2023.