LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) may face problems in getting the six provincial and 90 city level associations registered under the Societies Act of 1860, as is the demand of its own newly-amended constitution, which was implemented on Aug 19.

Though the PCB has applied for the registration, Clause 20 of the 1860 Act did not mention the registration of any sports body.

The said clause reads: “To what societies Act applies: The following societies may be registered under this Act: Charitable societies, societies established for the promotion of science, literature, or the fine arts, for instruction, the diffusion of useful knowledge, [the diffusion of political education], the foundation or maintenance of libraries or reading rooms for general use among the members or open to the public, or public museums and galleries of painting, and other works of art, collections of natural history, mechanical and philosophical inventions, instruments, or designs.”

The PCB in implementing the new constitution has already declared as defunct its 16 regional associations and all district level bodies, as they all have not been functional since Aug 19, as the PCB is directly controlling all domestic level activities.

The PCB has also suspended the affiliation of more than 30 departmental teams, which have been featuring in domestic cricket till the 2017-18 domestic season.

But they were not part of the 2018-19 domestic season, as hundreds of cricketers have either been sacked from these departments, or have been struggling to save their jobs.

Still the PCB awaits the registration of its newly-proposed bodies, raising questions over the smooth formation of the provincial and city level associations in the near future.

Moreover, 243 groundsmen and curators across the country, who were working under the umbrella of the regional associations, have either been sacked or working for less pay, as the PCB withdrew its financial contribution to their monthly salaries from Jan 1, 2020. The groundsmen and curators are the real assets of any cricketing body, but even their future looks uncertain.

Though under the 18th Amendment of the Constitution of Pakistan, the Societies Act has become a provincial subject, most of the provinces are following the same federal act, which was in force before the 18th Amendment.

When asked about the word of ‘sports’ was not mentioned in Clause 20 of the Act, the PCB spokesman said: “Section 20 of the Societies Act neither contains any bar nor imposes restrictions in terms of whether or not an Application for the registration of sport bodies (i.e. CAs in this case) as societies can be made. Societies are indeed a provincial subject and CAs would hence be registered in different cities as per the applicable laws. Currently, numerous sports organisations in Pakistan are registered and operating as societies, which only supports and reinforces the PCB stance that CAs can indeed be registered as societies.”

And when asked according to the Societies Act 1860, that a society may be formed by way of a Memorandum of Association by any seven or more people, but as the PCB has not yet even announced the interim set-up of provincial and city associations, how the requirements of seven members was fulfilled, while applying for the registration of the associations, the PCB spokesman claimed: “As far as the requirements are concerned, the Model Constitutions approved by the BoG will serve as Memorandum of Associations for the respective cricket associations. Moreover, there is no compulsion that the 7 people required to act as the initial ‘promoters’ of the particular society necessarily have to be members of the interim committees and may be any 7 individuals nominated by PCB for the purposes of registration.

“The announcement of interim committees [whose responsibility shall be to run the day-to-day affairs of CAs] shall have no bearing on and, therefore, will not hinder the registration process.”

However, it may be mentioned that according to the Act, one of the conditions for the registrations of societies is also as: “At least 7 members are required to establish Governing Body of a Society.”

The PCB spokesman further said: “We have been advised by our external legal counsels who are handling the process that [the] registration will not be a problem.”

However, the spokesman had no idea when approximately the registration will be done, as it is the need of the hour to put back the entire cricketing system on the constitutional track.

Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2019