New PCB secretary appointed on court order

LAHORE: A government official has been appointed secretary of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) with the task of reducing its number of employees.

Irfanullah Khan, a legal adviser in the ministry of Inter Provincial Coordination (IPC), said on Saturday that Amir Tariq Zaman, additional secretary for sports in the ministry, will take charge next week.

Khan says the appointment is in line with the Islamabad High Court order which instructed the IPC to remove all superfluous officials on the cricket board. The court said 68 employees were appointed unnecessarily during Zaka Ashraf’s 20-month period as the PCB chief.

Najam Sethi is the interim chief of the PCB and has until Oct. 18 to conduct fresh elections.

“We will visit PCB headquarters early next week where we will meet top officials of the cricket board,” Khan said.

“Our task is not only to reduce the employees, but also recover money from them which they received from the cricket board during their employment period.”

The PCB has around 900 employees all over the country, who work at various regional cricket associations and at the National Cricket Academy in Lahore. Last month, the cricket board reportedly approved a budget of 3 billion rupees and will be facing a deficit of 500 million rupees in the year 2013-14.

The deficit is mainly because the PCB has not been able to host any major international team for the last four years after gunmen attacked the team bus of Sri Lanka, killing six police officials and a van driver.

The reshuffling at the top of the PCB took place earlier this year when Ashraf got himself appointed for the next four years, triggering a challenge in the Islamabad High Court .

The court not only suspended Ashraf but asked the interim chief to conduct fresh elections and look into the day-to-day affairs of the PCB. However, it stopped Sethi - who was appointed by prime minister Nawaz Sharif - from taking any major decisions such as the appointment of the selection committee.

The court in July ordered a comprehensive transformation in the functioning of the PCB, to be initiated with fresh elections. The 30-page judgement, asked for changes in the structure of the PCB, questioned the appointment of the selection committee, as well as its financial and recruitment affairs. The PCB is presently being run by an interim setup led by a Najam Sethi - who was given 90 days until October 18 with the objective of looking into the day-to-day affairs of the PCB, cooperating and ensuring the conduct of the election.

The appointment of Khan, a government grade 21 officer, is, however, in direct breach of the Woolf report approved by the ICC which recommended governance in cricket boards to be free of government and political interferences. Earlier Sethi was named the interim PCB chairman directly by the Prime Minister, though the move was enforced by the IHC.

The IHC observed that a large contingent in the PCB was being paid lucrative packages, with 68 employees being appointed unnecessarily during Ashraf’s one year and eight months as the board chief. “In this view of the matter, it is directed that the federal government may appoint some official of the DMG group, not below the rank of additional secretary, as secretary of the PCB and all the officials in the PCB who are of no utility be removed forthwith and amounts paid to them may be utilised for improving the cricket structure and welfare of cricketers,” read the IHC order.