LHC lifts stay on PCB chairman election

The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday lifted a stay order on the election of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman.

Justice Anwar Hussain withdrew the injunctive order while hearing a petition filed by the PCB through its counsel Advocate Imtiaz Rasheed Siddiqui.

Last week, the LHC had stayed the election of the PCB chairman and sought replies from the federal government and other respondents to two identical petitions before two separate benches.

During today’s hearing, the court lifted the stay order and sent the case to LHC Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti.

Justice Hussain remarked that similar petitions had already been fixed before an LHC bench, suggesting that they be consolidated and assigned to that same bench.

The election fiasco

The elections for the new PCB chairman, after Najam Sethi — chief of the interim management committee — stepped down, were scheduled for June 27 with Zaka Ashraf, the prime minister’s nominee, set for the hot seat.

The matter went to the Balochistan High Court after Gul Mohammad Kakar, a member of the interim management committee, filed a petition challenging the elections, saying that the notification issued by the Board of Governors (BoG) on June 22 was against the PCB constitution.

The two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan and Justice Aamir Nawaz Rana had subsequently suspended the notification of the PCB BoG and issued a stay order on the elections till July 17.

Shortly after, the PCB had stated that the election had been postponed.

Last week, the matter had also been taken up by the LHC while the Islamabad High Court (IHC) had sought a report from the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) on a petition filed by an office-bearer of PCB’s Islamabad region.

The plea in the IHC had challenged the notification issued on June 20 by the IPC ministry that dissolved the board’s management committee and handed over the PCB to the election commissioner.