Caretaker Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Parliamentary Affairs, Murtaza Solangi informed the Senate on Friday that the government has issued instructions for the elections of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman's position.
In response to Senator Mushtaq Ahmad's question during question time in the Senate, he mentioned that the appointment of the current PCB head was done by the previous government, not the caretaker government.
The minister stated that Zaka Ashraf, the chairman of the board's management committee, has prior experience in this role.
He added that the present government has restricted the authority of Ashraf, and he cannot make crucial decisions independently according to the current government's guidelines.
The PCB has no chairman as of now as Ashraf has been overseeing all the work as the chairman of the PCB Management Committee.
It must be noted that the caretaker federal government in November approved an extension of three months in the tenure of Ashraf as the chairman of the PCB Management Committee.
“The federal cabinet approved the extension of the tenure of PCB's Management Committee for three months under Rule 16(j) of the Rules of Business, 1973 and Article 48 of the PCB Constitution, 2014,” a notification issued by the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) stated.
“The Management Committee is only authorised to perform the primary task of finalising the board of governance (BoG) and conduct the election of the PCB chairman at the earliest.”
Moreover, the notification said the Management Committee will only perform the day-to-day affairs of PCB and “shall not make any policy decisions or high-level appointments”.
“The Management Committee shall not be granted extension beyond three months,” it added.
It is pertinent to know that Ashraf replaced Najam Sethi as PCB's chief in July earlier this year.