Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday sought reply from Patron-in-Chief Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and Board of Governors (BoD) in a case against the resolution passed for making Pakistan Super League (PSL) a private limited company.

A single member bench of IHC comprising Justice Aamir Farooq heard the case filed by civil society seeking to declare the above resolution as null and void.

The counsel for the petitioner Tariq Asad Advocate argued that PCB was responsible to promote cricket game in Pakistan and monitoring its affairs. PCB couldn’t pass such resolution in accordance with law, he added.

He said the PSL was a mega profitable event and this was the basic reason that it had been decided to convert it into a private company just to benefit a certain group of people.

He argued that Najam Sethi was running the affairs of PCB due to having close terms with Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif who was Patron In Chief of PCB.

The two members of PCB’s BoG including Najam Sethi and Shakeel Sheikh were working in cricket board despite of corruption allegations, he further said.

He claimed that Rs 40 million were spent on only a one dinner event in Lahore, saying that further facts related to irregularities could also be disclosed after studying the audit report of PSL first season.

He said making PSL a separate private company was a bid to give a chance to some government’s favorit people to earn money.

After hearing the arguments, the court served notices to Patron In Chief of PCB and its BoD, and adjourned hearing of the case.

It may be mentioned here that PCB had passed a resolution in its meeting on November 8, 2016 for making PSL a private company.

According to the resolution PSL would work as a separate company comprising five members while remaining under the custody of PCB. The members board would include Najam Sethi, Mansoor Masood Khan (UBL) and Shakil Sheikh (Islamabad Region) from the PCB, and Arif Habib and Zia Rizvi from outside.

One of the PCB nominees will be the CEO while one of the outside directors would be the chairman.