Caretaker Chief Minister Punjab Mohsin Naqvi has been elected unopposed as the Chairman Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for three years, who is the 37th Chairman of the Board.
PCB has announced on social media website X that Mohsin Naqvi has been elected unopposed as Chairman PCB for the next five years.
Last month on January 22, 2024, the caretaker federal government had decided to nominate Mohsin Naqvi as the chairman of PCB.
A week before this, Pakistan Cricket Board Management Committee Chairman Zaka Ashraf resigned from the post before the end of his tenure.
After a few days, general elections are being held in Pakistan, which have many questions about their transparency and independence, but under the cover of confusion, another important election has also been held today.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) elections were held today in Lahore and a nominated board of governors selected one of the two nominees as the administrator of not only Pakistan but all forms of cricket through a show of hands.
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PCB was established in 1949 in Lahore Gymkhana. The founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, was its first patron and Nawab Iftikhar Hussain Mamdut was elected its first president. After that, 31 people have assumed the leadership, but three of them are the chairman of a committee whose task was to make elections, but Najam Sethi and Zaka Ashraf established their government but did not allow the elections to take place.
Now the current interim head Shah Khawar is an advocate election commissioner and also the head of the board although he has no experience of any lower level club.
Government interference in PCB has been there since day one but first it was done by Ayub Khan when he himself became the Vice President and then a few days later President. This was a bitter example which Zia-ul-Haq then repeated and deposed Chaudhry Muhammad Hussain and made General KM Azhar the chairman.
Pervez Musharraf also did the same procedure and appointed General Tawkir Zia as the Chairman.
However, KM Azhar and Tauqeer Zia took several positive steps for the development of cricket in the country. And during his tenure, the national team achieved many successes.
Shah Khawar is currently serving as the Caretaker Chairman Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).
The Provincial Coordination Ministry, which oversees the PCB, had set a historic precedent in December 2022 by dismissing an elected chief Ramiz Raja without cause under an executive order and constituted a committee to implement the 2018 constitution and replace it with the 2014 constitution. Conduct new elections under
According to clause 7 of the 2014 Constitution, the Chairman will be elected by a Board of Governors. The Board of Governors will consist of eleven members in which two members will be nominated by the patron Prime Minister of Pakistan while eight members will be four regional association representatives and four department representatives.
According to Article 10E of the Constitution, the top four teams in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy will have their representatives and the four top departmental teams in the President’s Trophy will have representatives, while the eleventh representative will be the Federal Secretary, Ministry of Provincial Liaison, but they will not have a vote. The right will not be obtained.
The government of the time ignored this constitutional provision and nominated the members of the Regional Presidents Board of Larkana, Dera Murad Jamali, Bahawalpur and Kashmir even though Karachi was the champion in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy.
Similarly, a representative of a new team, Ghani Glas, was also included in the board, who has as much experience as the Election Commissioner. They are accompanied by representatives of PTV, SNGPL and State Bank.
The Prime Minister has nominated Syed Mohsin Naqvi and lawyer Mustafa Ramde as Punjab caretaker chief minister. Both are as related to cricket as an English teacher can be to physics.
Announcement of the new chairman before the election
According to the government circles, there is a strong possibility that Mohsin Naqvi will be elected as the chairman and he will assume the presidency after February 9. Mohsin Naqvi is a TV channel owner and activist. He has done well in Punjab but the nomination of Mustafa Ramde is surprising as he has zero cricket or organizational experience. Their membership has definitely lost the right of an authentic member whose life has been spent in cricket.
Although the election of the Board of Governors has been done in an undemocratic and unconstitutional manner, the likes and dislikes have been taken into consideration in this undemocratic manner. The condition of the regions represented is different. Larkana and Dera Murad Jamali have no better grounds and no facilities. There is no cricket infrastructure in Kashmir.
None of the regions have properly registered clubs and have no record of them. It would have been better to prioritize Karachi and Lahore, which are the original nurseries of cricket, and their inclusion in the board would have provided an authentic and engaged voice.
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Karachi Region President Nadeem Umar is very active and is said to be the architect of Karachi Cricket. It is a national crime to replace him on the board with a man whose cricketing services have been meagre.
If the government announces the chairman before the election, will it be democratic?
The transparency of Tuesday’s election has been questionable even before it was held. And electing a weak board will allow more interference to those elements who have been involved in every setup for the last five years and allegedly have vested interests.
An example of the merits of these elements is that PSL’s media rights have been sold at exorbitant prices. In which many irregularities have been reported. The lack of focus on domestic cricket and poor arrangements have been widely criticized by the media.
Media was not allowed to enter important tournaments like Quaid-e-Azam Trophy. And the President’s Trophy final was postponed to a lower-tier franchise league, showing PCB’s lack of interest in domestic cricket.
Chairman’s salary and allowances
According to PCB’s website, no monthly salary has been paid to any chairman since 2014, but the details of perks and expenses given to him are listed. If you look at these expenses, they look lavish.
All their expenses are borne by the Board and they are given generous perks with daily allowance for any meeting or external visit. In 2014, Najam Sethi received benefits worth crores of rupees annually, including a bulletproof vehicle, private vehicle allowance, free telephone and thousands of liters of petrol.
From the time of former Chairman Shehryar Khan, the wife was also given the facility of foreign and domestic visits with the Chairman at the government expense. According to the website, he along with his wife received benefits worth more than three crore rupees during their three-year tenure.
Najam Sethi spent more than four crore rupees in his second term from 2016 to 2018, in which his wife and staff also accompanied him on every visit.
In 2018, Ehsan Mani was not far behind. They spent most of their time at their home in England, but they also spent four crore rupees taking advantage of the privileges.
When former captain Ramiz Raja became the chairman in 2021, he set new precedents. He spent in an austere manner and called for board revenue for the players and the game. During his tenure he spent only Rs.56 lakhs. He was the first chairman whose wife did not spend any board money and did not take any daily allowance on international trips.
It is yet to be disclosed how much the board has spent on its temporary heads after them.
If we look at these expenses, it seems that PCB is an organization of a richest country and its people have a wealth of wealth. In a country where 80% of the people do not have access to clean water and proper housing, the chairman of the cricket board lives a luxurious life and his staff are given huge salaries and benefits based on their qualifications and work.
Will Mohsin Naqvi become the chairman and be available only to the PCB and end the irregularities in the board? Time will tell the answer to this question, but if Mohsin Naqvi does not change the management of PCB, then his God-given abilities will also be seen by this board, like dynamic and active personalities like Najam Sethi and Rameez Raja before him. Addressed.
Naqvi’s first test will be to release the report of the committee formed against former chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq. Which was not allowed to be released by former chief Zaka Ashraf under specific objectives. The scandal revealed factionalism in the team and player power.
Cricket has become more of an industry than a sport. And if more money is made from it, then it is not bad, but if the countless earnings are spent in a proper way for cricket and the cricketer’s welfare, it will bring out very positive results.
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