The Pakistan Cricket Board is in a management mess.

On Wednesday night, its affairs were handed over to yet another interim management committee, not long after the dissolution of the previous one in June.

The new committee is headed by Zaka Ashraf, who is also the prime minister’s nominee for the position of the board’s chairman, elections for which are yet to be held.

Effectively, Zaka is the chairman of the board, but at the same time, he is not.

In the interim management committee that preceded Zaka’s, Najam Sethi enjoyed the same perks.

To put it precisely, the PCB has been without a permanent chairman since Ramiz Raja’s ouster in December last year.

On December 22, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif made his first move as the PCB’s patron-in-chief after assuming the role of the country’s chief executive.

He appointed an interim management committee for a six-month period, mandating the body to revoke the PCB’s 2019 constitution — which was established during his predecessor Imran Khan’s tenure and replaced departmental and regional cricket teams with provincial association sides — and restore the PCB’s Constitution of 2014.

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The prime minister chose Sethi to lead the committee for obvious reasons; his and his party PML-N’s closeness with the senior journalist.

Sethi arrived instantly took on complicated issues surrounding Pakistan’s Asia Cup hosting rights, which were being challenged from across the border, with Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Secretary Jay Shah categorically claiming a few months ago that the tournament would be held out of Pakistan.

While the campaign to save Pakistan’s status as the Asia Cup host was initiated by Ramiz, Sethi found himself in a position where he could either become a hero or a villain.

Fast forward six months, Sethi, after a commendable diplomatic effort involving negotiations with the Asian Cricket Council, International Cricket Council and BCCI, ended up securing at least four Asia Cup matches for Pakistan while letting go of the remaining fixtures to Sri Lanka, given India’s unflinching stance to not tour their northwestern neighbours.

Sethi’s tactics included threatening the ICC of Pakistan’s withdrawal from the upcoming World Cup, which is set to be staged in India from October 5 to November 19.

Having gained popularity through the Asia Cup dispute, Sethi was now eyeing to run for the PCB chairmanship post, with his management committee having nearly completed its work to constitute a Board of Governors (BoG).

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Sethi was ready to be named as one of the two remaining nominations — which were made by the patron-in-chief — for the 10-member BoG, only to pull out from the race after the PML-N faced political pressure from one of its important allies in the centre, the PPP.

The PPP wanted their man, Zaka, to be nominated by PM Shehbaz for the post, and that is exactly what eventually happened. But a few hours before what was to be Zaka’s election as the PCB chief, litigation by members of a few regional cricket bodies resulted in the Balochistan and Lahore High Courts, along with a few other courts, issuing stay orders on the poll.

However, that hasn’t proven enough to keep Zaka away from the powerful position of the PCB chairman. On Thursday, he officially took charge as the PCB interim committee chairman, with smiles all around as the government promised to take care of what goes ahead in the courts.

Until that happens, Zaka is the chairman of the new interim management committee and effectively the PCB chief.