If news reports are anything to go by, the newly-established National Assembly Standing Committee on sports is said to have taken a 'serious notice' of the declining standards of sports in the country. As well-intended as it may be, history suggests that the end result may not be much different from similar notices taken in the past.

The committee under Senator Enver Baig, for instance, was one of the most active in recent times and surprised everybody with its consistency and perseverance in taking up matters related to sports mismanagement in the country.

The committee’s proceedings never failed to make news because it raised pertinent questions that left officials running for cover. However, momentary embarrassment aside, the officials continued to behave as erratically as was — and continues to be — their wont.

The issue of the audit report related to the accounts of the Pakistan Cricket Board illustrates the point well enough. Despite being a hot issue with the national media as well the previous parliamentary committee on sports, it is yet to see the light of day.

The four-year audit, which reportedly reveals massive irregularities committed by various PCB functionaries, is expected to be released within the running month.

How sensitive it might prove to be can be gauged by the remarks of MNA Jamshed Ahmed Khan Dasti, who currently heads the standing committee. ‘The PCB’s audit report must be made public by the Auditor General of Pakistan so that the real faces behind the damage done to the most popular game in the country can be unveiled in front of the entire nation. We are all aware of the fact that if the audit report is made public, it will expose mammoth scams running into billions of rupees. Therefore, the main objective of the committee is to expose the culprits responsible. We have asked the AGP to make an appearance in the first committee meeting because we want to know the factors which have forcibly kept a constitutional body from releasing the audit report for so long.’

The tone of the remarks made by Jamshed Ahmed Khan Dasti clearly suggests that he is one hundred per cent clear that the audit report talks about serious irregularities, if not downright misappropriation, within the PCB.

Even though all that the MNA is talking about is the need of making the report public, the real question is whether someone will be held accountable for it.

Those who were calling the shots during the period concerned are no more in service. Those who are running the show today will easily pass the blame on to their predecessors. This will, intriguingly, include even those who were as much part of the past as they are of the present. This was exactly the case with the previous management when Nasim Ashraf distanced himself from the policies of Shahrayar Khan even though he was an integral member of Mr Khan’s kitchen cabinet!

By the time the audit report of the current tenure is made public — when and if at all — the current lot would be gone and the future head of the parliamentary committee on sports would limit himself to taking serious notice of the whole affair. It is a vicious cycle that has been going on for long and apparently there is little on the ground to suggest that this time around, things would be any different.

If Mr Dasti and the honourable members of his committee are serious about doing something concrete, they should start with getting an independent audit done of the recently-concluded ‘home’ series against Australia that was held in Dubai and Abu Dhabi because of the security concerns of the visitors.

Reports of PCB officials flying Business Class between Lahore and Dubai as well as using high-end rent-a-car services to move from Dubai to Abu Dhabi instead of staying with the contingent have made media headlines.

Who made the decision of taking so many officials, their families and their guests to the UAE? Will somebody hold somebody accountable for this mindless waste of money? And, if the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on sports considers it a matter worthy enough to take up in its meetings, one hopes it will do it while the PCB bosses are still around, and not when they are long gone.