LAHORE, Aug 20: The Federal Sports Ministry’s plans of bringing in an ad hoc committee to run the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for an interim period will not see the light of the day after it was learnt on Wednesday that the government will be appointing a new chairman of the board with immediate effect.

Sources in the ministry said the name of former Test cricketer Ijaz Butt had almost been finalised as the new chairman of the Board and the clearance from Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani was now just a formality. The post of the PCB chairman is lying vacant after previous Chairman Dr Nasim Ashraf resigned on Monday.

Federal Sports Minister Najamuddin Khan had announced on Tuesday that ad hoc will be imposed on PCB with aims to prepare a new constitution of the Board as well as to audit the accounts.

However, well-informed sources told Dawn that the government, fearing backlash from cricketing circles over imposing ad hoc in a democratic set-up, was more inclined to continue with the same PCB set-up with only a new chairman in place.

A former Test cricketer and director of a leading business group in the country, Ijaz Butt is a member of the PCB Governing Board and is an experienced official with a clean reputation. His appointment, if made, will be in line with the demands of several former cricketers like Javed Miandad, Zaheer Abbas and Abdul Qadir who have requested the government to bring in a former Test player as PCB chief.

Ijaz also served as secretary of the Board of Control of Cricket in Pakistan (BCCP) in 1987, the year Pakistan hosted the Cricket World Cup jointly with India.