November 27, 2007	Tuesday	Ziqa’ad 16, 1428

LAHORE, Nov 26: In a significant development here on Monday, the Pakistan Cricket Board’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Hasan Ahmad resigned from his post just days before a sensitive presentation to the governing board was to be made by him.Hasan, who joined the PCB on April 1 this year, was to give a presentation on the financial affairs to the newly formed Governing Board which had raised objections over various matters in its inaugural meeting held on Nov 9.

The 15-member governing board was formed after the restoration of the PCB constitution this year following an eight-year ad hoc period.

The governing board had objected that expenditures in millions of rupees were being shown under ‘other heads’ which provided no details about the nature of expensesmade by the board.

Sources told Dawn that the members of the governing board were of the view that the limit of ‘other head’ could be up to a maximum of ten per cent of the total budget but had amounted to a whopping 35 per cent in the PCB’s accounts.

Sources disclosed that according to an estimate, a hefty amount of Rs 100 million (Rs 10 crore) was shown to be spent on media alone during the past one year commencing Sept 2006.

Meanwhile, the PCB chairman Dr Nasim Ashraf, when contacted, confirmed the CFO’s resignation and added that the same had been accepted. “Hasan has a much better offer from a company in Dubai and I have, with a very heavy heart, accepted his resignation,” said the chairman.

“Hasan served well during his short stint with the PCB and I wish him all the success in future.”

Surprisingly, the chairman who got the approval for the appointment of the CFO and Chief Operating Officer(COO) Shafqat Naghmi from the governing board in the inaugural meeting (Nov 9), said that Hasan had informed him about his decision about one month ago.

He said the post would be advertised as soon as possible.