Lahore- Incumbent Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Najam Sethi today pulled out of the race for the top post in the board, the elections for which is set to take place in the near future.
Sethi made the announcement in a written statement to a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, which has been hearing the case relating to the board's chairmanship at its Lahore registry.
The case involves incumbent PCB chairman Najam Sethi and Zaka Ashraf with the latter being reinstated to head the board by the Islamabad High Court (IHC). The inter-provincial coordination ministry had however filed a review petition in the apex court against the IHC's decision to reinstate Ashraf.
The Supreme Court has also suspended a government notification issued during proceedings of the case under which new elections for the PCB chairman were to be held. In keeping with the notification, only Najam Sethi was allowed to contest the elections against one Umer Iqbal.
Also, the Supreme Court had asked the government to also allow Ashraf to contest the elections against Sethi but the government has been unwilling to do sanction this.
The Supreme Court bench will also hear petitions filed by 20 PCB employees sacked by Sethi but reinstated by the Islamabad High Court. Their fate hangs in the balance in wake of the inter-provincial coordination ministry's appeal before the apex court.
The case of former chief selector Mohammad Ilyas who was replaced with Moin Khan by Sethi is also on the list.