Ineke Zondag—AFP
Islamabad court directs Election Commission of Pakistan to conduct elections within two weeks.
The Islamabad High Court on Monday ordered the Pakistan Cricket Board to hold elections for a permanent head within two weeks.
The ruling by the IHC appears to have derailed moves by a new Interim Management Committee (IMC) to delay choosing a permanent chairman for the PCB.
The PCB has been in uproar since May, when the Islamabad court threw out then-chairman Zaka Ashraf over what it called the “dubious” process by which he was elected. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif appointed veteran journalist Najam Sethi as interim PCB chairman in June but a month later the court ordered Sethi to hold elections by Oct. 18.
Last week, Sharif took over as PCB patron and appointed the IMC to take over the day-to-day running of the game in an effort to end the months of confusion.
The IMC wanted to push back elections for the chairman to allow time for various local cricket associations to resolve outstanding legal issues.
But IHC Judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui on Monday ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan to press ahead with elections.
PCB legal adviser Taffazul Rizvi said the court had ordered elections for the post of chairman to be held by Nov. 2.
The PCB has faced administrative problems ever since its creation in 1948 with a series of ad-hoc committees running affairs, though a proper board structure was set up in 2007.