Interim chief to represent Pakistan at ICC meeting
An interim chairman will represent the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) at the annual International Cricket Council meet later this month after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) upheld the suspension of Zaka Ashraf in the second hearing of the petition filed by the Rawalpindi Cricket Association against the board’s elections that were held in May.
Ashraf was elected as the PCB chairman last month in what were the first ever elections to select the head of the cricket board. The elections, dubbed by many local associations as “unfair”, were part of the new constitution that replaced the system of appointing the chairman by the patron of the board, the president of Pakistan.
The IHC, in the inaugural hearing last month, suspended Ashraf from “exercising his power within his incumbency” due to what it called the “dubious” and “polluted” process to elect him.
The next hearing on the issue will be on June 19.
A judge has asked the Pakistan government to appoint an acting chairman for the PCB.
Zaka stood down from working last month as PCB chairman by judge Shaukat Aziz Siddique after a former Rawalpindi cricket official said the recent elections were unfair.
Siddique rejected a request to allow Ashraf to attend the ICC’s annual meeting in London later this month, instead asking the government for a temporary appointment to represent Pakistan.
The ICC annual conference is scheduled in London later this month.
The court, in the inaugural hearing last month, suspended Ashraf from “exercising his power within his incumbency” due to what it called the “dubious” and “polluted” process to elect him.