ISLAMABAD: In a major top-level change in Pakistan cricket administration, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday nominated a 14-member management committee headed by Najam Sethi to run the affairs of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) till the elections to be held within the next four months.

“The Prime Minister has seen and is pleased to approve the proposal at para 7, of the summary with the stipulation that names of the Management Committee, to be placed before the Federal Cabinet,” said the notification issued by the Prime Minister’s Office on Wednesday.

The Sethi-headed committee includes Shakil Sheikh (ex-PCB BoG), Gul Zada (ex-PCB BoG) Nauman Butt (ex-PCB BoG), ex-Test cricketers Haroon Rashid, Shahid Khan Afridi and Shafqat Rana, Sana Mir (ex-Pakistan women team’s captain), Aized Syed (ex-PCB director NHPC), Tanvir Ahmed (ex-president Larkana Region), Advocate Supreme Court Mustafa Ramday and Chaudhry Arif Saeed (CEO Service Industries).

One of the members of the new management committee, requesting anonymity, said this committee had been formed in the light of PCB’s Constitution of 2014.

“This [management] committee will work till the elections of PCB Board of Governors and Chairman which will be held within 120 days,” the said member said.

“Now, after a formal approval from the Federal Cabinet anytime soon as a summary has been moved for getting [this] approval through circulation, the PCB Constitution of 2019 will be formally repealed and the Constitution of 2014 will be formally revived.”

The 2019 Constitution was approved by former prime minister Imran Khan.

This committee will manage PCB affairs with full executive powers with the aim of effecting the restoration of departmental cricket structure and allied matters, including the nomination of Board of Governors and the election of chairman, as stipulated in the 2014 Constitution, within 120 days.

According to sources, there were strong chances that after repealing the Constitution of 2019, Sethi would formally take charge as PCB chairman after the completion of relevant legal formalities.

The Ministry of Inter-provincial Coordination (IPC) the other day had moved a summary to include two new PCB BoG members — Sethi and Shakil — in place of incumbent PCB chairman Ramiz Raja and another member Asad Ali Khan.

Ramiz was elected as PCB chief in September last year.

Late on Wednesday, sources added, the IPC Ministry moved a summary to Cabinet Division for its approval through circulation.

It is relevant to note here that Ehsan Mani replaced Sethi as PCB chief following the latter’s resignation in 2018 after the formation of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government which was replaced in April this year following Imran’s removal as PM through a no-confidence motion in the Parliament.

Published in Dawn, December 22nd, 2022