Balochistan High Court stays PCB elections until further order

QUETTA/LAHORE: The Balochistan High Court on Monday suspended the notification of the Board of Governors of Pakistan Cricket Board and issued a stay order on the elections of the chairman of the country’s cricket governing body till July 17.

The elections to elect the new chairman, after Najam Sethi — the chief of the interim management committee — stepped down, were scheduled for Tuesday with Zaka Ashraf, the prime minister’s nominee, set for the hot seat.

The matter went to court after Gul Mohammad Kakar, a member of the interim management committee, filed a petition challenging the elections, citing the notification issued by the BoG on June 22 was against the PCB constitution.

The two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan and Justice Aamir Nawaz Rana accepted the petition for hearing and issued notices to the PCB and other concerned authorities.

The PCB issued a short statement late on Monday that the elections had been postponed. “Following the interim order of the Honourable High Court of Balochistan, Quetta, Tuesday afternoon’s election of the PCB Chairman has been postponed,” it said.

The issue centres on the fact that Chief Election Commissioner Shahzad Farooq Rana made several changes to the list of the BoG which was finalised by the interim management committee on June 20, the final day of the six-month tenure given to it by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, PCB’s patron-in-chief.

Zaka and Advocate Supreme Court Mustafa Ramday were the two nominees sent by the prime minister with the management committee having named the other eight members of the BoG, who were due vote for the chairman.

The management committee, which restored PCB’s constitution of 2014, had included four regional presidents from Lahore, Peshawar, Karachi and Rawalpindi alongside representatives from Wapda, Khan Research Laboratories, Sui Southern Gas Company and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited.

However, the Chief Election Commissioner announced a new electoral list which included Hyderabad, Larkana, Dera Murad Jamali and Bahawalpur as regional’s voters as well as State Bank of Pakistan and National Bank of Pakistan while retaining SSGC and SNGPL.