The draft of new constitution of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is reportedly vetted by the Ministry of Law and Justice and forwarded to the Federal Ministry of Sports for approval. President Asif Ali Zardari, who is PCB Patron, had earlier directed the Federal Ministry of Sports and the PCB to first develop the consensus before finalising the draft constitution.
According to reports, the draft will be forwarded to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani for his approval, while President Zardari will give his final assent over it. It is believed that in the draft it was suggested that an ad hoc body should replace the current management to implement the constitution within six months.
However, no one knows when the new constitution, probably the second in less than five years, will see the light of the day, as both the President and Prime Minister are burdened with important national and international issues, hence early implementation of the constitution is not possible.
One may recall that the ad hoc system, imposed by former president Rafiq Tarar on the advice of Nawaz Sharif on July 17, 1999, suspended the constitution, paralysing the democratic set-up in the Cricket Board. Since then the PCB affairs are runs by a top man, appointed by the PCB Patron, and his hand-picked advisors and there is no role of elected office-bearers of the affiliated associations. Even today when the country is run by a democratic government, the PCB is virtually run on ad hoc basis and without any constitution.
Taking advantage of the Patron's busy schedule, PCB Chairman Ijaz Butt is playing with the cricket and is taking decisions according to his whims. Commenting on the national cricket affairs, cricket experts and those associated with the national cricket affairs have stressed upon the Patron to give his consent to the new constitution and democratise the PCB as early as possible.
They are of the opinion that the present PCB set-up, not in agreement with the democratic norms, was working in a typical aristocratic and bureaucratic way, least bothering about the implications of their undemocratic actions.
They also stressed the need for doing away the practice of nominating the PCB Chairman, formation of elected of the elected general body and executive council of the Broad, consisting of elected representatives of the affiliated associations of the country. It is generally believed that the PCB Chairman, on the advice of governing body members, is damaging the cricket most and the recent action taken by the Chairman on the recommendations of PCB inquiry committee, was widely criticised.
This is the most disturbing situation in an era when the government is determined to devolve powers, involving people in solving their problems at their doorsteps. But the PCB, which does not believe in accountability, has decided to take such drastic and harsh actions against the crickets.
Zardari's directive President Zardari is reported to have directed the Federal Ministry of Sports and the PCB to first develop the consensus before finalising the draft constitution, but PCB Chairman Ijaz Butt, who expressed his reservations over several clauses of the draft constitution, is reported to have complained that the board had not been consulted before the finalisation of the draft.
But the Ministry of Law and Parliamentary Affairs is believed to have said that the new draft constitution was vetted after the Ministry of Sports informed the Presidency that the draft constitution is a consensus-based document. However, the Presidency also accepted the Ministry of Sports version that the key clauses of the draft constitution were forwarded by the office of the President, Public Accounts Committee, and the National Assembly Standing Committee on Sports and later the constitutional committee for a review.