LAHORE: Lahore High Court Chief Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan on Wednesday issued notice on an application put up by Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) seeking transfer of a petition against the new constitution of the board from Multan bench to principal seat.

The Honourable Lahore High Court, Multan Bench, where the first hearing had taken place with only the Petitioner present, had refused to accept the Petitioner’s plea for a stay order to be granted and had only issued notices to PCB. No date of hearing has been fixed since in Multan.

Representing the application, PCB’s Legal Advisor Taffazul Haider Rizvi stated before the court that the litigation pertaining to the Constitution of the board was already pending adjudication at the principal seat of the LHC.

He further said that another petition titled “Akbar Khan versus Federation of Pakistan” had been filed before Multan bench on the same matter. He said the petition had no concern with Multan as the PCB had its head office in Lahore and all other respondents cited in the petition were either based in Lahore or Islamabad.

The advisor argued that the petition should be transferred to principal seat to be heard along with the already pending petition to avoid conflicting judgments.

Chief Justice Qasim Khan heard the contention and issued a notice to the petitioner (Akbar Khan) for April 30.

The petitioners have submitted that the Ministry of Inter-provincial coordination issued the impugned notification on Aug 19, 2019 pertaining to certain amendments which changed the basic structure of the PCB Constitution in an undemocratic and unlawful manner.

They said the new constitution had been promulgated without taking on board the stakeholders as well as without holding meeting of general body and governing body of the PCB. They argued that the new Constitution deprived thousands of cricketers from their fundamental right to play cricket at domestic level and get a chance to represent the country at international level.

They asked the court to set aside the notification of the amendments in the Constitution for being issued without lawful authority.

Published in Dawn, April 16th, 2020