LAHORE: Ahmad Shahzad Farooq, the recently terminated chief election commissioner of the Pakistan Cricket Board, on Saturday alleged that he was removed by the patron of the PCB for not accepting what he termed unconstitutional instructions of the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination in holding fresh election of the Board chairman.

Addressing a press conference here, Farooq also claimed that PCB’s incumbent Interim Management Committee (IMC) headed by Zaka Ashraf had been formed unconstitutionally.

“The PCB is heading towards a major constitutional crisis which is going to give a bad name to Pakistan at international level,” Farooq stated at the presser.

“The looming crisis is also damaging the cause of [Pakistan] cricket.”

Farooq recalled that when the IMC appointed by PCB patron Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, working under Najam Sethi, was dissolved by Federal IPC Minister Ehsan Ur Rehman Mazari on June 20, just a day before the end of its tenure, he took additional charge as acting PCB chairman as per the constitution.

“But right from day one, interference from the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination started,” he alleged.

As per the constitution, Farooq said, the patron sent two nominations, Zaka Ashraf and Mustafa Ramday, for the Board of Governors to contest the election of PCB chairman.

The IPC Ministry, he claimed, forced him to hold election of the PCB chairman in two days, whereas the constitutional requirement in this regard was of eight days.

“I was also forced to omit the section from the nomination papers which questions the academic qualification of the candidate contesting PCB chairman’s election, which I refused to accept,” Farooq said.

Farooq said the prime minister, before sending the names of the nominees, should know the qualification of his nominees.

He said when he was appointed as CEC, the patron had given him the task of restoring the 2014 constitution under which new elections were to be held in 92 districts and then in all 16 regional cricket associations.

Farooq further said that though he conducted the elections successfully at the level of districts and regions, 17 cases regarding elections in several districts were filed in different courts.

Noting that the Zaka-headed IMC was constituted under Clause 48 of the PCB constitution which was unconstitutional, Farooq insisted the said committee should have been formed under Clause 38.

Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2023