PCB chief summoned by senate committee

Nasim Ashraf, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), has been asked to appear before a Senate Standing Committee on Sports to answer specific queries. This comes just days after Enver Baig, a Senator and a member of the committee, had requested the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to order an audit into the accounts of the PCB.

The committee has invoked Rule 163(4) of the Rules of the Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Senate (1988) to make Ashraf personally appear before the committee, and he has to do so within 14 days, which means that a meeting has to take place by June 23.

The "non-implementation" of the PCB constitution tops the agenda laid out by the standing committee. Ashraf has been directed to submit financial records and details regarding the PCB's employees, appointments, contracts and the newly appointed national selection committee.

He has also been asked to provide details of Pakistan's Test and ODI performances from January 2000 to May 2007 and also expenses incurred on stadia from January 2004 to May 2007.

This adds to the war of words between Ashraf and Baig, which has been on for some time now. Baig has been on record in Pakistan daily The News on May 30, expressing his frustration at the non-implementation of the constitution and also termed Ashraf "the most incompetent person in the PCB". He had earlier gone on a token hunger hunger strike to protest what he called the "ad-hocism" in the PCB.

Ashraf had filed a lawsuit against Baig in response to his comments to the newspaper, which in turn led Baig to file a privilege motion against Ashraf for labelling him a "sick mind". It was in response to the lawsuit that Baig had requested an audit of the PCB. Baig, who belongs to the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) , has been at odds with Pakistan cricket administrators before, having grilled Shaharyar Khan, the former chairman of the PCB, on similar issues.