Petition against PCB constitution rejected

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has rejected a writ petition against the PCB's new constitution, discouraging an attempt to push the Pakistan board into another legal tangle. The court has also fined the four petitioners Rs 1 million each for misguiding the court and concealing facts.

Justice Athar Minallah, the High Court judge, rejected the petition after a first hearing and said: "The four petitioners' objection on the constitution was rejected as they tried to mislead the court by concealing facts."

The four petitioners in the appeal are Nadeem Sadal, Aamir Nawab [a former PCB governing board member from the Abbottabad Cricket Association], Mohammad Rafiq and Ameer Haider. The court noted that none of the four petitioners, who had questioned the newly implemented constitution, were aggrieved parties and all of them were given heavy monetary sanctions which will be paid to the PCB directly.

Incidentally, it was Sadal's petition in the Islamabad High Court in May last year that led to then-PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf's suspension after his election was termed "polluted" and "dubious". The decision triggered a leadership crisis within the PCB and the chairmanship rotated between Najam Sethi and Ashraf before the crisis was finally resolved following Shaharyar Khan's election as chairman.

Sadal is a former official of the Army Cricket Club in Rawalpindi, and had earlier filed various petitions against the board. This is the third time that his appeal has been struck down by the court, which also questioned how Sadal's fundamental rights were affected by the functioning of the PCB. Sadal had briefly joined the board as a member of the organising committee of the 2013 National Twenty20 Cup in Rawalpindi and had backed down from legal proceedings during that period.

In July this year, the Supreme Court had ordered the PCB to implement the new constitution under which the board of governors would elect a new chairman. The decision brought an end to a period of turmoil that had extended for more than a year, affecting the sport in the country.