BEING a passionate cricket lover, I have been deeply shocked to learn that the prime minister has become the patron-in-chief of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). Since its establishment in November 1947, the head of state has always remained the patron-in-chief of the cricket board.

The Quaid-i-Azam became the first patron of the then Board for Cricket Control in Pakistan.

The Quaid didn’t accept this title under any constitutional obligation but it was the request of the general body of the then BCCP. And since then this title rested with the head of state.

The constitution of the PCB doesn’t empower the president, who in my view is still the patron-in-chief of the board, or the self-appointed patron-in-chief, the prime minister, to amend the PCB constitution.

But gross violation has been committed by a politician who made history by becoming the prime minister for the third time.

Is it arrogance of power? I also wonder how could the prime minister who himself is a passionate cricketer can do an undemocratic act for which he was not empowered even after the passage of the 18th Amendment.

The prime minister took this whimsical decision in an indecent haste, only two days before the Islamabad High Court’s deadline of Oct 18 given to Najam Sethi to complete the election of the PCB chairman according to the ICC directives. Sethi failed to meet the deadline.

This is not the first instance that court’s order was ignored. The prime minister had already rejected a summary of the inter-provincial coordination ministry prepared under the court’s order to appoint the chairman of the PCB.

The prime minister appointed his favourite, which is tantamount to contempt of court. Again, the prime minister has tried to bail out Sethi, rejecting court’s deadline of Oct 18.

The prime minister has done no good to the game through his arbitrary decision to save Sethi’s skin.

This has set a bad example and spread the wrong message across the country that ‘might is right’.

ASIF SOHAILLahore