ISLAMABAD: Former Pak­is­tan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Zaka Ashraf is set to take the post once again after he was nominated for the body’s Board of Governors (BoG) by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday.

In a notification released by the PM Office, Zaka, along with Supreme Court advocate Mustafa Ramday was among the two nominations made by the premier for the role in his capacity as the PCB’s patron-in-chief.

Traditionally, the PM’s nominees have gone on to be elected to head the PCB, and so will be the case when Zaka assumes charge following the board’s elections with the 10-member BoG now officially complete.

To conduct elections at the regional level and coordinate with affiliated departments in order to congregate the remaining eight members of the BoG — under the PCB’s 2014 constitution — was the PCB’s interim Management Committee’s mandate.

The committee, which was led by Najam Sethi since being appointed in December last year, now stands dissolved with PCB Election Commissioner Ahmed Shehzad Farooq Rana having assumed charge as the acting chairman of the board until the elections are held.

The polls, sources said, are expected to be conducted “within the next two days”.

“The Pakistan Cricket Board Management Commi­ttee met today under the Chairmanship of Mr Najam Sethi at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore in which it approved the composition of the Board of Governors,” a PCB press release said hours before Ahmed took office.

The BoG is composed of four regional representatives from Peshawar, Lahore, Karachi and Rawalpindi while officials from Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL), Sui Sout­hern Gas Company (SSGC), WAPDA and Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) will represent the departments. Zaka and Ramday will complete the mix.

The nomination of Zaka by Shehbaz came after reported grievances between the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), with the latter’s demand for Zaka to be backed by Shehbaz for the PCB chairman post while the prime minister favoured Sethi for the position.

The Minister for Inter-provincial Coordination Ehsan-ur-Rehman Mazari — who represents the PPP — had openly criticised Shehbaz’s intended move of putting Sethi in running for the chairmanship role. Arguing that the subject of sports fell under the IPC Ministry, Ehsan and his party believed Zaka should be preferred over Sethi.

In the midst of the rising controversy, Sethi broke his silence in the late hours of Monday, tweeting that he didn’t “want to be a bone of contention bet­ween Asif Zardari and Shehbaz Sharif”, while announcing his withdrawal from the PCB chairmanship race.

“Such instability and uncertainty is not good for PCB. Under the circumstances I am not a candidate for Chair­man­ship of PCB. Good luck to all stakeholders,” he had tweeted.

The Sethi-led 14-member Management Committee was formed in December to fulfill their mandate in four-month’s time, but despite being given a two-month extension in April , it could not complete the elections process a with polls of the regions including federal areas, Abbottabad, Sialkot and Multan still pending due to litigation amid allegations of pre-poll rigging.

Operators of numerous cricket clubs have been alleging that their clubs were not given voting right while many alleged fake clubs have been given the privilege to do so. The allegation was, however, denied by a member of outgoing committee.

Speaking to Dawn, IPC minister Ehsan said that his ministry had a complete roadmap to bring improvements in the PCB.

“We are pleased to announce that our nominee Zaka Ashraf has been appointed as member of BOG by Prime Minister,” he said. “Now, within few days, the elections of PCB will be held to elect the new chairman.”

Ehsan believed Zaka had vast experience of running the PCB’s affairs and that in his last tenure “he performed brilliantly and this time too, he will play his due role in bringing improvements in cricket from grassroots level to national level”. The minister added that “all talented players of the country would be given due chances to excel”.

Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2023