IHC bars Najam Sethi to work as chairman PCB

The Islamabad High Court on Tuesday suspended the ad hoc committee of the Pakistan Cricket Board and issued contempt of court notices to the five committee members, which included the acting PCB chief Najam Sethi, and sought a reply from them within four weeks, DawnNews reported. A single-member bench IHC's Judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui resumed the hearing over an appeal filed by the PCB against the decision under which interim chairman PCB was allowed to work only on a day-to-day basis and was asked to conduct the elections for the new chairman by Oct 18. The court while restraining Chairman PCB Najam Sethi from performing his duties gave the charge of acting chairman of Pakistan's cricket's governing body to the Secretary PCB. The court suspended the ad hoc committe and formed a commission to conduct the elections of the PCB's chairman while stating that the commission would be headed by Justice (r) Munir A Shiekh. The PCB's elections would be conducted in November, the court added. Earlier this year, the IHC, removed former PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf from his post, while declaring his election as null and void. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had then appointed Sethi as interim PCB chairman (in place of Zaka), also in violation of the PCB constitution, because it was the domain of the PCB governing board members to elect an interim chairman. According to the PCB constitution, an interim chairman enjoys very limited powers. Though, the IHC judge further reduced the powers of Sethi by ordering him to work only as caretaker — and not as interim chairman. A contempt petition was filed by Ahmed Nawaz Khan against Najam Sethi saying that the court on July 4 had directed him to hold fresh elections within 90 days for the slot of PCB chairman but Sethi committing contempt of court has not taken any measure in this regard till this time.