Row over security expenses: PM vows to help break PCB-Punjab govt deadlock

ISLAMABAD: Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) Management Committee Najam Sethi on Sunday reached out to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in a bid to break the deadlock with Punjab government over security expenditure of matches of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) to be held in Rawalpindi and Lahore.

According to sources, Najam Sethi contacted the prime minister, who is also the PCB’s patron-in-chief, to brief the latter about the deadlock with the caretaker Punjab government over security expenditures of the PSL-8 matches to be held in the two cities.

The PCB chairman told the prime minister that the matches would have to be shifted to Karachi if the provincial government did not stop demanding money for security arrangement. The PM assured the PCB chief of complete support, according to the sources.

The fate of the PSL fixtures in the two Punjab cities — including the final match scheduled to be held in Lahore on March 19 — remains in limbo, as Punjab’s Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi is insisting that his cabinet is not willing to make a compromise on the security expenditures for holding the tournament.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023