LAHORE, May 18: Expressing ‘no trust’ on the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) over two of its major projects involving millions of rupees, the Governing Board has refused to give approval of the same and has convened an emergency meeting at the National Cricket Academy on Monday to discuss the issue.

Sources told Dawn the first project relates to a joint venture of the PCB and the Pakistan International Airlines Investment Limited (PIAIL) and the second is about the purchase of six generators for the floodlights.

In the last meeting of the Governing Board held at Islamabad on May 13, some distinguished members refused to endorse the agreement the PCB had concluded with the PIAIL over a precious 5.8 acres of land adjacent to the National Stadium, Karachi. They objected to the extremely low rates of about Rs1420 for per square yard fixed in the deal and said it was far less than the one in the market.

After stiff opposition from the Governing Board members, the issue has been referred to a joint committee of the PCB and PIAIL, a meeting of which will be held on Monday. From the PCB side, Lt Col Muneer Hafeez, Aslam Sanjarani, Farooq Rehmatullah and Ijaz Butt will be attending the meeting while the PIAIL will be represented by the Federal Secretary Defense Kamran Rasool and some other officials.

The contentious agreement relates to the long-standing issue of the occupation of a precious piece of land measuring 5.8 acres at the NSK, which the PCB had transferred to PIA in return of a loan amounting $770,000 taken during Air Marshal (retd.) Nur Khan’s tenure way back in the ’80s. Then, Mr Nur Khan was the chief of both PIA and the Board of Control of Cricket in Pakistan (BCCP) (now the PCB). In fact, the BCCP had to develop its 104 acres of land adjacent to NSK following a presidential directive of March 1980. Some 40 acres of that land was declared as commercial to finance the project.

Later, however, the project was abandoned and PIAIL claimed refund of the sums advanced on BCCP’s behalf. The BCCP was unable to pay the claimed amount and it was mutually decided that in order to settle the claim of PIAIL, 5.8 acres of NSK land would be transferred to PIA under an indenture of sublease dated Sept 13, 1987 and registered with the registrar on Nov 29, 1987.

Subsequently both PIAIL and PCB went into litigation on this issue of advance and sub-lease of the plot. However, later both the institutions reached an accord on Oct 11, 2007. Mueen Afzal and Ali Raza, both members of the then adhoc committee, represented the PCB to settle the issue.

According to the agreement both the PCB and PIAIL shall form a limited liability company in the name of Avant Hotels (Pvt) Limited in which the PIAL shall have the major chunk of shares — 62.5 per cent and the PCB of 37.5 per cent. This luxury hotel will be constructed at the said land which has been sub-leased to PIAIL on a nominal price — Rs1400 per square yard.

The Governing Board members, however, have raised objection over the nominal price set in the deal. One of the members went one step forward by saying that he was ready to give Rs50,000 per square yard for that land and added that he could deposit the money the very next day.

The meeting was also told that two key officials of the PCB (Shafqat Naghmi and one other) would be on the list of directors of the newly formed company. The members also raised objection to it, terming it as violation of the rules. “How can a government employee be the director of a private limited company?” asked a member. Another Governing Board member even alleged that the some PCB officials could make huge money out of the said agreement.

The other project which will be debated today is one concerning purchase of generators. Apparently, the PCB used to hire generators on rent from the private sector for back-up support of six big floodlight poles. These generators were used to ensure the proceeding of international matches without interruption in case of power failure.

These generators would cost PCB Rs40,000 per hour and their six hour use in a day would cost PCB Rs 240,000 per match. The rent of six generators would cost PCB a total of Rs14,40,000 per day.

However, after the embarrassing power failure during the One-day International between Pakistan and Bangladesh at the Gaddafi Stadium last month, a group of the PCB officials decided to purchase the board’s own generators to avoid such a situation.

The budget prepared for the purchase of generators, however, amounted to a whopping 90 million and when PCB’s Director Human Resource and Administration Nadeem Akram presented it for approval, the Governing Board members were left astounded, according to the sources. One distinguished member seriously confronted Nadeem over the Rs90 million budget and even challenged him that the total cost of six generators, manufactured by international companies, was around Rs30 to 40 million at the maximum. He categorically told Dr Nasim Ashraf, the PCB chairman, that some officials were probably making money out of this contract, the sources disclosed.

Sensing the gravity of the situation Dr Ashraf immediately intervened by appointing a two-man committee comprising Ijaz Butt, Farooq Rehmatullah to finalise the purchase of the generators.