Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) Ehsan-ur-Rehman Mazari has reiterated that PPP-backed Zaka Ashraf will be the next chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).
Mazari while speaking on a local TV talk show said that Najam Shetty’s mandate, heading the Management Committee (MC) is only to conduct free and fair elections in the regions.
“Najam Shetty had temporarily headed the Interim Management Committee and had only one mandate to conduct elections in the cricket region,” he said.
In December last year, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who is also PCB’s patron, appointed a 14-member MC headed by Sethi to strengthen the 2014 constitution, to bring back divisional cricket.
Initially, the MC was given 120 days to restore the 2014 constitution. However, Shetty and the company were given an extension of four weeks which now ends on June 20.
Mazari said, Sethi will not be extended any more now. “Now the term of management committee will not be extended. Zaka Ashraf will be the next chairman of PCB,” he reiterated.
Ashraf earlier served as PCB Chairman during the last government of PPP. Now again, the PPP top leadership, according to reports, wants their candidate to be the PCB chief.
Mazari had earlier said that the PPP leadership had asked him to send Ashraf’s name for the PCB chairman to Prime Minister Shehbaz.
“The ministry has already transferred it [Ashraf’s] summary to the Prime Minister’s Office for approval,” he told a local publication. “We have a lot of respect for Sethi but we are clear on who our candidate is and I had a meeting with him today to discuss cricket matters in detail,” he said.
