The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday declared all decisions taken by the Najam Sethi-led Interim Management Committee, which was running the affairs of the board, as ‘null and void’.
The development erases any doubt that Waqar Younis, Grant Flower or any other official will keep their jobs just a week after being appointed by Sethi.
According to media reports, the IHC said it was necessary to suspend the notification which brought Sethi in power at the expense of an elected Zaka Ashraf regime.
Ousted chief Sethi earlier on Sunday had announced that he would challenge the decision of reinstating Zaka as the PCB chairman. The government today made an official announcement that it will appeal the decision of the IHC in the Supreme Court and back Sethi.
Sethi said the court judgment would be challenged “vigorously and swiftly.”
“The good steps we took to professionalise and invigorate cricket and clean up the PCB will not be allowed to go in vain,” Sethi told a foreign news agency.
Justice Noorul Haq N Qureshi of the IHC on May 17 had set aside the Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO) issued by the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) government which brought Najam Sethi in the PCB as chairman and also reversed the termination of 38 PCB employees carried out by the Sethi regime.
While announcing the decision to the challenge the IHC’s decision in the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Sethi reiterated his stance of correcting and cleaning up the board’s system and indicated at conducting elections in this regard.
He added that the board’s constitution had been prepared already with the help of two former Supreme Court judges but the process was suspended due to the court’s decision.
“Two ex-Supreme court judges submitted a draft of a democratic PCB constitution to the federal government last week. I wrote to the government to vet it, promulgate it and hold PCB chairman and board elections before 9th June,” said Sethi, who is also a veteran journalist.
