Two days after being removed, Supreme Court reinstates Najam Sethi as PCB chairman

Najam Sethi speaking to media representatives

The judgement of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) which made Zaka Ashraf as chairman for the PCB, was put to stay by the Supreme Court of Pakistan that reinstated the former management committee under Sethi and restored all its decisions which were also cancelled by the IHC.

The IHC’s order turned out to be a threat to the recently appointed team management including Waqar Younis as head coach, Moin Khan as chief selector and team manager and the rest of the support staff who were taken on board during this period.

The bench of judges headed by Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali - gave the decision in favour of Pakistan government's appeal on Wednesday. The three-member bench also called for a hearing involving all the parties on May 27.

The appeal against the judgmement was filed on May 20, by the Ministry for Inter-Provincial Co-ordination, which oversees sports affairs in Pakistan. In its plea, the government clamed that the move will bring harm to Pakistan Cricket and also begin a "chain of events that will create immense chaos and destruction, costing millions and millions of rupees. All reforms towards election, constitution making, and international commitments will be at peril."

The most controversial cricketing body in world cricket was again in the news lately, courtesy, the perennial struggle for power at the body’s top post. It has to be noted that the IHC on May 19, by stating that there had been no proof for the reason of his removal in the first place, reinstated the Zaka Ashraf led committee for the second time in this year signalling the removal of Sethi from the post and all the decisions taken by his team over the last four months. Thus the post has changed hands twice in the last three days.