LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has removed the stay order imposed by the Balochistan High Court (BHC) on the election for the post of chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).
Justice Anwar Hussain took the step during the hearing of a petition presented by the PCB, with Imtiaz Rasheed Siddiqui serving as their legal representative.
Last month, the board was forced to postpone the election of a chairman after the formation of its board of governors was challenged in BHC.
The high court had accepted the petition of Gul Mohammad Kakar, a former member of the PCB management committee, and set a hearing for July 17.
“Following the interim order of the […] high court of Balochistan, [the] election of the PCB chairman has been postponed,” the PCB said in a statement.
Lifting the stay order, Justice Hussain, who presided over the hearing, transferred the case to LHC Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti. He noted there were already similar petitions scheduled before an LHC bench.
Furthermore, with the aim of streamlining the legal proceedings, he proposed consolidating these petitions and assigning them to the same bench for efficient handling.
Before former chairman Najam Sethi dropped out of the election, he formed a 10-member board of governors that also included two direct nominees from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the PCB patron.
Acting chairman Ahmed Shehzad Farooq Rana, who is also the election commissioner, then changed several of the board of governors, prompting Kakar’s court challenge.
With Sethi out, the favoured next chairman is a former holder of the office, Zaka Ashraf.
Ashraf was a direct nominee of the prime minister.
