September 17, 2008	Wednesday	Ramazan 16, 1429

LAHORE, Sept 16: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has abruptly cancelled the meetings of three sub-committees of the Governing Board which were scheduled to be held here on Saturday, sources told Dawn.

The PCB had summoned the meetings of the International Cricket, Infrastructure and Finance committees to review the overall situation.

The meetings were important since the Governing Board meeting, which is mandatory to meet this month, could not be convened due to non-existence of the PCB chairman, after the resignation of Dr Nasim Ashraf on Aug 18.

Some Governing Board members had decided to convene a meeting of the Board for Sept 15 to meet the constitutional requirement, which says the Governing Board must meet after three months period.

But the federal Sports Ministry secretary Ashraf Khan warned the members not to hold any such meeting, till the appointment of the next chairman, since Dr Ashraf had resigned.

Though the corporate laws allow the members to hold a meeting and to elect an acting chairman from the members, they preferred not to meet on Sept 15 to avoid any confrontation with the Ministry. But as some important matters are lying pending with the PCB, needing approval of the Governing Board members it was decided to discuss those cases at the sub-committee meetings.

But sources said, the PCB cancelled the meeting at the pretext many members of the committees were not available.

However, they added that the PCB management cancelled the meetings because it had the fear the Governing Board members, taking advantage of their gathering, could appoint an acting chairman.

Each committee comprises three members of the Governing Board, thus nine out of total 15 could attend these meetings to take any decision with majority.