By
Syed Khalid Mahmood
(Pakistan
News & Features Services)
The
musical chair at the top for the past one year has started to hurt the Pakistan
cricket very seriously and there’s hardly any indication to suggest that
remedial measures will be taken for damage control purposes.
It
looks quite strange, if not totally surprising, that the democratically elected
government has not been prepared to let Chaudhary Zaka Ashraf work at all
although he was elected to the position of the Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket
Board (PCB) in 2013 through a democratic process.
Earlier
this month he had been reinstated as the PCB Chairman for the second time this
year, after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) annulled the committee headed by
Najam Sethi, Even before Zaka Ashraf could properly step in, he was shown the door
again.
The
Supreme Court of Pakistan ordered a stay against the IHC judgement and a
three-judge bench, headed by Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, accepted the
government's plea on May 20, reinstated the Najam Sethi-led management
committee to run the PCB, and restored all its decisions. The bench has called
all the parties involved for a hearing on May 27. It remains to be seen how
many more twists there would be to this tale.
The
reinstatement of Najam Sethi wasn’t generally welcomed in the cricket circles
of Pakistan as besides his own dubious record there are a few others in his
so-called Management Committee, having caused more damage to the game than him
in the past.
Zaka
Ashraf, on the other hand, was looking good in whatever little time he was
allowed to work at the helm of the affairs. His decision to rope in Arif Ali
Khan Abbasi appeared a masterstroke in these circumstances. Alas that couldn’t materialize.
It’s
painful really to compromise on the interests of the game which unites the nation
and brings smiles on the faces of the millions, the majority of whom have
thousands of issues up their sleeves.
It
would have been advisable to let Zaka Ashraf work for a considerable length of
time because he had shown a lot of promise and guts to take the Pakistan
cricket out of shambles. The government could have intervened if he was found
wanting or committed acts that defied national policies.
But
to shoot him down just for the political reasons or to accommodate someone seems
unfair by all means. They could have obliged Najam Sethi in some other ways, as
they were already doing, but to engage him in the cricket affairs at the
expense of a democratically elected chairman doesn’t make sense.
Isn’t it a pity that Zaka Ashraf was forced to devote the major chunk of his energies in counter-productive events for the past one year? He had many plans to fulfill when he became the first-ever elected chairman of the PCB last May. Less than three weeks after his election, the IHC had barred him from dispensing his duties, following questions over the legality of his appointment.
Isn’t it a pity that Zaka Ashraf was forced to devote the major chunk of his energies in counter-productive events for the past one year? He had many plans to fulfill when he became the first-ever elected chairman of the PCB last May. Less than three weeks after his election, the IHC had barred him from dispensing his duties, following questions over the legality of his appointment.
