12 May 2004	Wednesday	21 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

LAHORE, May 11: Representatives of the six city cricket associations of the country have given the Pakistan Cricket Board a May 21 deadline to start negotiations for the redressal of their grievances.

At a joint press conference on Tuesday, they demanded an end to ad-hocism in PCB, restoration of general body and the rights they were enjoying three years ago including selection of teams on their own.

LCCA president Aamir Hayat Rokri, KCCA secretary Sirajul Islam Bukhari, LCCA secretary Khawaja Zafar, Mardan president Dr Tariq Mahmood Inayat, Quetta secretary Gul Mohammad Kakar, Pishin secretary Liaquat Ali Tareen, Swabi president Aamir Nawab and Mardan secretary Syed Ihtaram Shah, said if the PCB did not settle the associations'issues they would meet the President of Pakistan, the PCB patron-in-chief and stage a sit-in in front of PCB headquarter besides moving the courts.

Claiming to have 90 per cent of associations' support, they said they had all been fed up with the 'cruel' policies of PCB chief executive Ramiz Raja. The LCCA president said that Ramiz's policies had reduced the associations to mere dummies by depriving them of organizing international matches and selecting teams for domestic cricket.

Asked the PCB officials were annoyed with associations for their failure to hold elections on scheduled dates and pick teams on merit, he said it was the PCB which had advised them not to go for polls before the new constitution was enforced.

He claimed that Ramiz himself had recently advised him not to hold elections, but this time he decided to ignore his advice. The LCCA elections at zonal level would be completed by June 6.

He questioned the performance of the LCCA team picked by the PCB for Quaid-i-Azam Trophy this season and said the LCCA had never been relegated to sixth position in the past, the position it slipped down to this time.

He said the victory against the Indians and not the hospitality the board extended to them, was important. Siraj Bukhari said selection of a city team was the right of its association, which the board was denying them.

"Will the PCB obey the International Cricket Council (ICC) if it ordered that it would pick the Pakistan team?" He said the KCCA had fought for its fundamental right in court and won the case.

Under the PCB constitution, no other post except chairman's could exist on ad hoc basis, therefore, the chief executive and treasurer were working unconstitutionally, he said.

He cited clause of Article 46 of the constitution which read "the patron may, if satisfied that the board is unable to perform its function, by order supersede the management of the Board and appoint an ad hoc committee consisting of a chairman and as many members as he considers appropriate to assume the function of the board."

Siraj said the PCB chairman in a TV interview had declared the board would pay dues to the KCCA but no action had so far been taken. "Mr Shaharyar is a gentleman, but the action taken by the board is entirely different from what he was saying," he said.

He said the team's performance has continued deteriorating over past four years and it is only because of the ad hocism imposed on the body. Quetta secretary Gul Mohammad demanded Balochistan should be given maximum representation on the board and said there was no need for appointing bureaucrats to the advisory council.

They (bureaucrats) should sit on the board so that city associations could have easy access to them. He said even after Quetta defeated various teams in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy, the province still got insufficient support from the PCB.