LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has decided to terminate the services of some of its employees belonging to various cadres and has handed them a one-month notice period ending on June 30.

A PCB spokesman said that the decision of downsizing in the Board has not been taken due to financial constraints caused by Covid-19 outbreak but it has been done as per the requirement of corporate norms since the staff in the PCB is surplus already.

The list of terminated employees also includes lower level staff such as the office boys which is rather amazing since their meager salaries are unlikely to be a major burden. It is also unfair to undertake such a move at this crunch time when the crisis situation caused by coronavirus pandemic has played havoc with the lives of people, especially the poor.

Replying to a question as to why the retrenchment decision was taken at his time when the problems of the general public had been compounded due to Covid-19, the PCB spokesman said that the step had been taken since the new financial year of 2020-21 was to commence from July 31 and things had to be reviewed.

When asked if a three-month extensions could have been offered to the sacked employees to help them cope with these tough times, the spokesman said it was an administrative decision and was taken after keeping all aspects in the account.

It is learnt that the PCB had made an amendment in its services act on May 15 for which it had taken an approval of the Board of Governors through a circular resolution. After that amendment, the PCB has started to cut down its staff.

Meanwhile, the PCB spokesman said that he had no exact figures of the retrenched staff but he could share that the staff belonged to all cadres.

Dawn, however, learnt that eight employees from Lahore and three from Rawalpindi are on the list of terminated employees and the numbers could increase in the coming weeks.

It is to be recalled that the government of Pakistan has been advising the private and government sectors not to sack any employee, especially during the Covid-19 epidemic.

The PCB, it may be mentioned here, has possibly the largest set up among the cricket boards of the world as far as its staff strength is concerned. Almost every chairman had made appointments to oblige friends and relatives and the staff strength is said to be been approximately 800.

The incumbent PCB body has already cut down the staff strength to some extent by abolishing the regional body system, where nearly 260 employees including groundsmen, curators besides office clerks were working and getting some portion of their monthly salaries from the PCB besides from their respective regions.

On the other hand, though, the incumbent regime of PCB has introduced lucrative pay packages for their top officials each of whom are being paid millions and millions of rupees millions in monthly salaries.

That includes Wasim Khan (CEO), head coach-cum-chief selector Misbah-ul-Haq , Director High Performance Centre, Nadeem Khan. Moreover, former spinner Saqlain Mushtaq has also been appointed at a very handsome package in place of Ali Zia and Chief Operating Officer Salman Naseer who has replaced Subhan Ahmad.

Published in Dawn, June 4th, 2020