By Muhammad Asif Khan
Sheharyar Khan has completed his second innings in the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), as the chairman, and now the PCB is under the acting chairman, who happens to be the election commissioner of the board as well. His primary responsibility is to administer the transition.
Like other members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), Pakistan also has it’s mechanism of choosing the head of the cricket’s governing body in the country.
There are certain rules, duly mentioned in the constitution of the Pakistan Cricket Board. The process starts with the nod of the patron-in-chief of the board, who, as per the existing constitution, is the Prime Minister of Pakistan as well.
To roll the ball, the patron puts forward two names to be included in the board of governors (its formation will be elaborated later) and the ten-member body – BoG – elects one amongst them for the coming three years. Historically the chairman is elected from the couple, put forward by the patron-in-chief.
Apart from the nominations for the post of chairman, the patron-in-chief may, from time to time, give general policy directions to the Board.
Before the election process, the Electoral College – the BoG – is constituted. The Board of Governors is consist of four representatives of the regional associations (on the basis of rotation), four representatives of service organisations or departments (nominated by the relevant organisations or departments) and two members are nominated by the patron-in-chief.
Other than these ten individuals, the federal secretary from the ministry of Inter Provincial Coordination or any other officer nominated by the federal secretary acts an ex officio member of the BoG and is not entitled to cast vote.
For the first elections of the Board of Governors, held in 2014, four representative members of the regions were the top four finishing teams of the latest Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, while the four representative members of Service Organisations/Departments were the leading four teams of President’s Trophy Tournament.
For the upcoming elections to choose Sheharyar Khan’s successor, the BoG for the next three-year term has already been constituted with Lahore, FATA, Sialkot, Quetta [regions], WAPDA, UBL, SSGC and HBL [departments] as representatives of regions and departments.
For the post of chairman, for the next three-year term, the patron-in-chief already nominated Najam Sethi and Arif Ejaz for the slots on the BoG.
Mr Sethi needs not much of an introduction. Apart from a renowned journalist, he has been with the PCB for about five years and has acted as chairman as well as the head of the executive committee. He is also the chairman of the Pakistan Super League (PSL), which has had a couple of successful editions.
The other nominee, Arif Ejaz is a former CEO of Adamjee Insurance, KSB Pumps Industries and also has served as Director at LSE, HUBCO and Kohinoor Textiles. Mr. Ejaz is a visiting fellow at LUMS.
The election for the new PCB chairman is scheduled to be held on August 9th, 2017.