PM Shehbaz okays appointment of Najam Sethi as PCB chairman

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday approved the appointment of Najam Sethi as the new chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), ARY News reported citing sources.

Sources privy to the matter said that notification regarding the change in PCB board of governors will be issued later in the day.

Sources revealed that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) will release four notifications related to the abolishment of the 2019 constitution of the cricket board; restoration of the 2014 constitution; termination of the two PCB governing body names nominated for the chairmanship under the 2019 constitution and the fourth notification will notify the establishment of an interim “set up” to run the existing board.

The interim selection committee will be formed to announce the squad for upcoming series against New Zealand starting from December 26, they say.

The development comes after the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) today moved the summary to remove Ramiz Raja as Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman.

IPC has sent a summary to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to include the names of Najam Sethi and Shakil Sheikh as new PCB Governing Board members in place of Asad Ali Khan and Ramiz Raja.

It is worth mentioning here that Ramiz Raja was appointed as PCB chairman by the former prime minister of Pakistan Imran Khan on September 13, 2021.

Najam, 73, first served as chairman in 2013 but had to fight a legal battle with Chaudhry Muhammad Zaka Ashraf. He returned to charge in 2014 but Shahryar Khan was named chairman and Sethi was given charge of the powerful executive committee.

In August 2017, he was re-appointed chairman of the board but a year later, he stepped down after Imran Khan took charge as Prime Minister and announced his successor, former ICC President Ehsan Mani, as the new head of the cricket board.