Court orders new PCB election

The Islamabad High Court has ordered the acting PCB chairman Najam Sethi to hold an election for his office within 90 days. The High Court was responding to a petition filed by a former Rawalpindi Cricket Association official against the board elections held in May, when Zaka Ashraf was elected chairman for a four-year term under the new PCB constitution.

Ashraf was later suspended from his post by the High Court, after there were questions raised about the legality of his election. The High Court said the process had been "dubious" and "polluted" and Sethi was appointed as interim chairman during Ashraf's suspension.

The petitioner had also called for the suspension of the PCB's new constitution but the High Court ordered the new elections to be held under the same constitution. The petition has now been disposed.

Ashraf was the first-ever elected PCB chairman under the new constitution, which in February removed the system of the Patron of the board, the President of Pakistan, choosing the chairman. Nine governing board members endorsed Ashraf and the process was conducted without any prior announcement, the board revealing Ashraf's appointment through a press release.

After his election, however, Ashraf faced opposition from the regional associations of Punjab, Pakistan's largest province with 60% of country's population, for preventing them from being part of the board. Instead, two new regions without any first-class teams - Larkana and Dera Murad Jamali - were represented on the board.