ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday nominated former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Zaka Ashraf and Supreme Court advocate Mustafa Ramday as members of the PCB board of governors, after Najam Sethi pulled out of the race to be PCB chairman.
Sethi has been heading the interim management committee since last December, whose tenure was due to end on June 21.
It was widely believed that Sethi would be appointed permanent chairman of the board, but speculation grew in recent weeks on the return of Ashraf as the board chairman.
On Tuesday, the government notified the dissolution of the Sethi-led interim management committee.
"The extended tenure of the management committee of PCB stands completed," the Pakistani inter-provincial coordination ministry said in a notification.
"On completion of the tenure, the management committee of PCB stands dissolved, ceases to operate."
It said the PCB affairs were handed over to the election commission, appointed by the PCB patron.
Later a statement from Sharif's office said the prime minister, in his capacity as the PCB patron, nominated Ashraf and Ramday as members of the PCB board of governors.
Earlier in the day, Sethi effectively pulled himself out of the race to become the PCB’s next chairman.
“I don’t want to be a bone of contention between Asif Zardari and Shehbaz Sharif,” Sethi tweeted, naming a former Pakistan president and prominent coalition partner in the government and the current prime minister of Pakistan, respectively.
“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.”
Sethi’s tweet was referencing “political horsetrading” over the chairman’s seat, ESPNcricinfo said, as Ashraf is believed to be Zardari’s pick.
Traditionally, the PM’s appointee to the PCB board of governors becomes the board chairman in Pakistan.
Sethi has been running the PCB on an interim basis since Ramiz Raja was removed as chairman and the board’s 2019 constitution was scrapped in December last year. Sethi’s committee was initially given 120 days to bring back the 2014 constitution under which the PCB was run and reinstate the regional and department structure in domestic cricket.
The interim committee was also given a mandate to form a board of governors and elect a chairman.
On Tuesday, the interim management committee met under the chairmanship of Sethi at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium and approved the composition of the board of governors, the PCB said in a statement.
Apart from the two PCB patron nominees, the other board members included four regional representatives from Peshawar, Lahore, Karachi and Rawalpindi, and four representatives from departmental or service organisations, Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited, Sui Southern Gas Company, Water and Power Development Authority and Khan Research Laboratory.
