da gbg bet： The Islamabad High Court has dismissed the order issued by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the patron of the PCB, that removed Zaka Ashraf as chairman and formed an eight-member committee led by Najam Sethi
da poker： Umar Farooq17-May-2014Chaos and the PCB
May 8 – Zaka Ashraf becomes the PCB’s first elected chairman
May 28 – The Islamabad High Court bars Ashraf from dispensing his duties, following questions over the legality of his appointment
June 13 – High Court upholds Ashraf’s suspension at a subsequent hearing and orders the PCB to name an interim chairman
June 19 – Key decisions are in the lurch, including an MoU that needs to be signed for Pakistan to tour the West Indies for a limited-over series in July
June 23 – Najam Sethi is named PCB’s interim chairman
July 20 – High Court overrules all major decisions taken by Sethi and orders the Election Commission to conduct fresh elections for the chairman post
July 24 – PCB files appeal against High Court decision
September 28 – The ministry of Inter Provincial Coordination (IPC) names Amir Tariq Zaman Khan the PCB secretary – a role not defined in the PCB constitution – in compliance with the High Court order
October 15 – Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif dissolves the PCB governing board and forms a five-member interim management committee headed by Sethi
October 21 – Islamabad High Court sets November 2 as the deadline for Election Commission to fill the chairman post
November 4 – High Court says Sethi commission can continue working, stays election process
November 17 – Sethi raises conflict-of-interest questions by interviewing Misbah-ul-Haq on his political show
December 17 – High Court reserves judgment on PCB appeal against July 20 ruling
January 15 – High Court reinstates Zaka Ashraf as PCB chairman
February 10 – Najam Sethi returns as PCB chairman, after the patron of the board, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, dismissing the chairman Zaka Ashraf once again and dissolving the board of governors
May 14 – Zaka Ashraf comes under a cloud after an internal audit by the PCB covering his 22-month span as chairman reveals a staggering level of financial extravagance
May 17 – The Islamabad High Court dismisses the order issued by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on February 10 that removed Zaka Ashraf as chairman, paving the way for his return
The Islamabad High Court has dismissed the order issued by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the patron of the Pakistan Cricket Board, on February 10 that removed Zaka Ashraf as the chairman of the board and formed an eight-member committee led by Najam Sethi. The natural consequence of the court order would be that Ashraf is back at the helm of affairs. The detailed court order, likely on Monday, will further clarify the bigger picture.”We were not the petitioner but we were made a party of various petitions against Najam Sethi for termination of dozens of employees,” Ashraf’s laywer, Affan Kundi, told ESPNcricinfo. “Wrapping up the various petitions, the judge suspended the SRO issued by PM on February 10. And the natural legal interpretation suggests that Zaka Ashraf is back as chairman. I am not sure if there is any other interpretation but meanwhile this is the best understanding of the judge’s remarks.””This is a win for Pakistan cricket,” Ashraf said. “I will try to correct the wrong things in Pakistan cricket and do whatever is good for Pakistan cricket.”Sethi, however, said the judgement will be “challenged vigourously and swiftly”. His committee had been working to “professionalise” the PCB, he said, and he would strive to not let the work it had done go to waste. “Two ex-Supreme Court judges submitted a draft of a democratic PCB constitution to the federal government last week,” he said. “I wrote to the government to vet it, promulgate it and hold PCB chairman and board elections before June 9, the cut-off date given in the SRO appointing the management committee.”But the court neither gave our lawyers a chance to defend the SRO or put our electoral plan in action. This judgment will be challenged vigourously and swiftly and the good steps we took to professionalise and invigourate cricket and clean-up the PCB will not be allowed to go in vain.”On February 10, Sharif superseded Ashraf-led governing board and directed a management committee to pick a PCB chairman from among its eight members. The committee chose Najam Sethi, who has acted as interim chairman while Ashraf was suspended in 2013 by the same court. Sethi has been working as the PCB chairman, leading the eight-member adhoc management committee that also included Shahriyar Khan (former PCB chairman), Zaheer Abbas (former Pakistan captain), Naveed Akram Cheema (chief secretary, Punjab), Shakeel Sheikh (former member of PCB board of governors), Yousaf Naseem Khokhar (former member of PCB board of governors), Iqbal Qasim (former cricketer), Ijaz Chaudary (IPC secretary).Justice Noorul Haq N Qureshi, heading the single-member bench at IHC, was the judge hearing petitions against the PCB challenging the termination of a number of employees in the board, including that of former chief selector Mohammad Ilyas. Although Ashraf was not the petitioner, he was made a party to it.In the last 12 months, Ashraf had been removed as the PCB chairman twice. He was suspended in May 2013 by the Islamabad High Court after it ruled he had been elected via a “dubious” and “polluted” process. However, after a complicated legal process, he was reinstated by the same court on January 15 this year before Sharif dismissed him again on February 10.
