LAHORE: While stopping the Pakistan Cricket Board’s Interim Management Committee chairman Zaka Ashraf from holding a crucial IMC meeting in Karachi, the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordi­nation (IPC) on Tuesday called him and other PCB executives to Islamabad for an important meeting to be held on Wednesday.

Earlier on Tuesday, Zaka in Karachi was due to chair an IMC meeting which was eventually postponed. Later in the day, the PCB chief returned to Lahore for travelling to Islamabad to attend the meeting with the IPC Ministry today.

Zaka during the now-postponed IMC meeting was supposed to form the Board of Governors (BoGs), which is the first step to hold the elections of PCB chairman for a three-year term.

It is learnt that the Ministry of IPC, citing an order of the Lahore High Court (LHC) had stopped Zaka from forming the BoGs, which will be the electoral college to elect PCB chief.

The IPC has taken the stance that according to the LHC, managing the matter of forming the electoral college as well as holding the elections is the job of PCB election commissioner Shah Khawar.

Zaka, on the other hand, contends that it is his prerogative to make the BoGs as previous IMC chairman Najam Sethi had formed it, though on the final working day in June last year.

It may be mentioned here that Zaka during his first tenure of four months — from July to November last year — as IMC chairman got a freehand to work despite a notification of then prime minister Sheh­baz Sharif which had restricted him to manage only day-to-day affairs of the PCB.

However during his second tenure of three months, which is going to end on Feb 4, caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar strictly confined Zaka to only deal with daily matters of the Board.

Dawn has learnt on authority that Zaka in today’s meeting will try to convince the IPC Ministry and to allow him to take decisions, which were essential on any particular day, during the remaining time of his tenure.

According to sources, if Zaka fails to convince the IPC to accept his stance there are chances that he will decide to quit respectfully.

The PCB and English county Middlesex were to play exhibition matches of their men and women teams in Rawalpindi from Feb 24 to 26. However, the IPC Ministry did not give its approval.

Recently, Zaka decided to appoint former Pakistan captain Azhar Ali as head of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) but again the IPC did not allow.

Moreover according to some reports, the IPC Ministry did not endorse a long contract for Pakistan’s incumbent team director Mohammad Hafeez.

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2024