ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary panel on Wednesday was informed that former chief executive officer (CEO) Wasim Khan was the highest paid employee of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) drawing a monthly salary of Rs2.6 million.

The new PCB management for the first time shared complete details of the salaries of all its employees with the National Assembly Standing Committee on Inter-provincial Coordination (IPC), which met here at the Parliament House with MNA Nawab Sher in the chair.

According to the PCB record, there are 18 employees in the Board who get salaries of Rs500,000 or above.

The committee was told that Wasim received a monthly salary of Rs2.6 million.

Other high paid employees of the PCB included physiotherapist Wycliffe Andrew Deacon, (Rs2.1 million), director media Sami Burney (Rs1.3 million), director high performance Nadeem Khan (Rs1.3 million), head international players development Saqlain Mushtaq (Rs1.2 million), chief executive officer (associate) Salman Naseer (Rs1.2 million), chief financial officer Javed Murtaza (Rs1.2 million), chief medical officer Najeebullah Soomro (Rs1.2 million), chairman selection committee Mohammad Wasim (Rs1 million), director human resource Serena Agha (Rs865,000), director international cricket operations Zakir Khan (Rs844,708), director security and anti-corruption Asif Mahmood (Rs650,000), SGM operations Asad Mustafa (Rs613,000), SMG Finance & Accounts Ateeque Rasheed (Rs600,000) while chief executive officers Anwar Saleem Kasi, Babar Khan, Najeeb Sadiq and Abdullah Khurram Niazi earn Rs500,000 each per month.

The committee was supposed to get briefing from PCB chairman Ramiz Raja about the Board’s affairs. However, he could not turn up due to his engagements in Karachi. The NA Standing Committee chairman while showing displeasure said the PCB head should have been in the committee meeting, to which PCB’s chief financial officer told the committee that Ramiz is in Karachi for his meeting with Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah.

The committee also took up the issue of PCB’s consortium with A TV and pending audit paras of cricketing body.

While briefing on “The Prevention of Offences in Sports Bill, 2020”, moved by MNA Iqbal Muhammad Ali Khan, Secretary of the Ministry of IPC informed the committee that initially the matter was taken up with the Ministry of Law and Justice for legal opinion. The Law Division opined that post the 18th Constitutional Amendment, the Parliament is no longer competent to legislate on the subject of sports and also advised to take up the matter with the Ministry of Interior.

He also informed that the IPC Ministry has already taken up the matter with the Ministry of Interior and requested the committee to direct the Interior Ministry to furnish their views/comments on the matter.

The NA committee directed the Interior Ministry to furnish its views/comments on “The Prevention of Offences in Sports Bill, 2020” to the committee at its next meeting.

Published in Dawn, January 6th, 2022