LAHORE, Oct 15: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who is also the new Patron-in-Chief of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Tuesday gave control of the PCB to an ad hoc committee namely the Interim Management Committee (IMC) for three months.

The decision to give control of the board to the five-member committee has just come three days before Oct 18 hearing in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) where the cricket regulatory body may face contempt of court for failing to conduct elections for a new regular PCB chairman.

It is instructive to note that the five-member ad hoc committee contains incumbent PCB caretaker chairman Najam Sethi, former PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan and ex-Pakistan team manager Naveed Akram Cheema and former Test cricketers Zaheer Abbas and Haroon Rasheed.

According to a press release issued by the PCB, the decision has been taken by the prime minister, who has become the patron-in-chief of the PCB in place of the president of Pakistan.

The IHC has also mentioned in its previous order that the president is no more patron of the PCB after the passage of the 18th Amendment.

The PCB press release stated: “In view of the prevailing state of affairs of the PCB with regard to its constitution, the directions given by the Honourable Islamabad High Court concerning the PCB and the pending Intra-Court Appeal in IHC, the Patron of PCB i.e., the prime minister of Pakistan has been pleased to direct the following:

“Paragraph Section 41 of the PCB Constitution has been amended and under the said paragraph the board has been superseded. An Interim Management Committee (IMC) has been constituted to ensure that the PCB remains enabled to continue to perform day-to-day domestic and international functions for the promotion of the game and in line with the directions of the court.

“The members of the IMC are: Najam Sethi, Shaharyar M. Khan (former PCB chairman), Zaheer Abbas (former Test cricketer), Haroon Rasheed (former Test cricketer) and Naveed Akram Cheema (former Pakistan team manager).

“The IMC was directed to elect one of its members as chairman. Since ICC Board meetings are scheduled on 18th and 19th October in London, therefore the committee immediately unanimously decided to elect Najam Sethi as its chairman.

“Supersession of the Board shall remain in force for a period of not more than ninety days unless extended by the patron.”

It may be mentioned here that the IHC had given 90 days to Sethi to supervise elections for the new regular PCB chairman until Oct 19 with the court ordering the Election Commissioner of Pakistan to hold these elections.

The IHC also decided the electoral college for PCB polls, according to which presidents of all district associations and regional associations were voters. However, the Election Commissioner did not appoint any official to hold the elections in question.

Moreover, the PCB also failed to complete the election process at district and regional levels as 35 per cent of the electoral college is still incomplete.

It is important to be noted that a contempt notice against the PCB caretaker chairman has already been filed in the IHC for not holding the elections in 90 days.

Talking to Dawn, Shaharyar Khan said that he was not in a position to make any comments about his role, adding things would be cleared in a couple of days. However, he expressed hope that working of the PCB won’t suffer.

Meanwhile, terming imposition of ad hoc a possible solution to run the PCB affairs, former PCB chief executive Arif Ali Khan Abbasi expressed doubts over individuals included in the ad hot committee, saying they had not been exemplary in their conduct in the past.

He also doubted the IHC’s decision would be implemented, saying categorically: “Problems of the PCB will worsen in the wake of PCB failure to comply with IHC order of conducting election for the PCB chairman.”

In fact, Abbasi said, the ad hoc on the PCB had been imposed since 1999 as no order was passed to end it.

He further said that he was sure that the prime minister had not been briefed properly about the sorrow state of affairs in the PCB.