LAHORE: The Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) has decided to take legal opinion of the Law Ministry before getting approval of caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar on whether to allow Pakistan Cricket Board’s Interim Management Committee (IMC) Zaka Ashraf to form the Board of Governors (BoGs), the electoral college of the PCB, which has to elect chairman of the Board for a three-year term.

An exhaustive meeting on the subject between Federal Minister for IPC Fawad Hasan Fawad and Zaka was held in Islamabad on Wednesday.

Dawn has learnt that Zaka during the meeting raised the point that under Article 38 of the PCB Constitution, the IMC held the power to form the BoGs.

He had decided to hold an important IMC meeting in Karachi on Tuesday to form the BoG. However, the IPC Ministry disallowed the meeting and called him to Islamabad to discuss the matter.

Dawn tried to contact Fawad in order to get the version of the IPC Ministry on the subject, but could not get any response. PCB election commissioner Shah Khawar also attended Wednesday’s meeting along with secretary and additional secretary of the IPC.

However, instead of following the PCB constitution, Fawad sought the advice from the Law Ministry on the subject. Therefore, it may take one week for the IPC Ministry to come to any conclusion.

The three-month extended tenure of the IMC is going to end on Feb 4.

It seems, if the Law Ministry advises the PCB to follow the Article 38, Zaka may complete his tenure. However, the IPC Ministry will not allow him to form the BoGs and a new IMC may be formed to function after Feb 4.

Zaka is also bound to follow instructions from the IPC Ministry to manage only day-to-day working of the PCB while its major functions remain at a standstill.

Meanwhile, sources told Dawn that the PCB also brought the matter of indiscipline allegedly being committed by some members of the Pakistan squad, currently on a T20 tour of New Zealand. However, the PCB did not receive any response from the IPC in this regard.

Sources said that six centrally-contracted Pakistan cricketers were even ready to suspend their contract with the PCB, as they were more inclined towards participating in maximum number of T20 leagues.

“These [Pakistan] cricketers are giving top priority to international leagues over the [PCB] central contract and they are not [primarily] willing to play for their own country,” a PCB official regretted while talking to Dawn.

“The [national team] players in New Zealand are not in total command of team director

Mohammad Hafeez as they know he will soon be no longer at the helm of affairs and will leave with Zaka after Feb 4,“ added the official.

It may be mentioned here that Hafeez, who is also operating as national team’s head coach, is drawing two salaries, the total of which is almost equal to what the PCB was paying to his predecessor Mickey Arthur and his hand-picked head coach Grant Bradburn.

Interestingly however, before going to Australia for his first assignment, Hafeez during a press conference had said that there was no head coach of the national team.

Though Zaka wanted to give Hafeez the job on a long-term basis, the IPC Ministry did not give its permission.

Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2024