It is incomprehensible to the followers of cricket in this country, as also abroad, as to why the necessity arose of a new constitution to replace the present one, which is in abeyance since about six or seven years when Lieutenant General Tauqir Zia, now retired from the army, was nominated as Chairman of the board and took over from Dr Zafar Altaf the functions of the chief of the game's central organisation. The appointment was purely an ad hoc arrangement and it was presumed that after the elections in the associations, the grass-roots level of the game's setup, the constitution would be revived and the General Body and the Council would regain their powers.
However, unlike the governmental system where the assemblies meet and enact some laws, despite the protests and the hue and cry made by the opposition the clauses of the cricket's constitution have remained in suspension and the chairman, even though holding the post in an ad hoc capacity, has run the affairs of the game at the Qadhafi Stadium in an authoritarian way, with no accountability to anybody.
The Patron, who is none other than the President of the country, has no time to question the limits crossed by the board incumbent. The mode and method of the PCB working suited the current head of the board, Shaharyar Khan, who has held the top bureaucratic job in the foreign office and belongs to the princely stratum, being the grand-son of Nawab Hamidullah Khan of Bhopal. Shaharyar has played hockey for his former state and has been selected for his college cricket team in England. But then democratisation of the board is an entirely different matter and cannot be enforced by a person brought up in an environment and atmosphere of princedom. As it was he continued to wield autocratic powers for more than an year. And then decided that a new constitution was the need of the hour, in which he thought he would have unlimited authority.
In the meantime, much to his liking, he has constituted a panel of advisers, mostly non-technical hands, to take decisions on captaincy, manager and other subjects concerning cricket. These matters are okayed without much ado and debate, without any hindrance to the chairman, who presides over such meetings.
It is a moot point if Shaharyar, the ad hoc appointee for heading the cricket board, had the prerogative to ask a former Judge of the Lahore High Court, Justice Karamat Nazir Bhandari, to draft a new constitution to replace the present one.
In the first instance Bhandari should have spurned the offer for as a retired member of the higher judiciary he knew that the constitution was in suspension and could be revived any time. If at all there are some defects they could be removed, not through a fresh document but by convoking the highest tier of the board, the General Body, to discuss the constitution clause by clause and see what loopholes are there.
The General Body then can suggest and approve the changes which may then be transmitted to the Law Ministry for bringing them in the legal language and lastly the Patron, the President, would put his signature.
When Justice Bhandari took over the job of drafting a new legal document the cut-off date given to him was April 30, 2005.
The former author of judgements completed his task in the time given to him. The advisers of PCB, who were handpicked by Shaharyar Khan and who had no legal background, pointed out some flaws in the clauses of the document and it was dispatched back to Justice Bhandari to do the needful in a week.
The draft will return to the headquarters of the board and will perhaps be approved in a jiffy by the advisers. It will then be sent to the presidential secretariat for the Patron's stamp and signature.
It is still not known if it will be a democratic document and follow the democratic lines, which means the General Body and Council will get back their full authority as enunciated in the previous document. Nobody knows what will be the makeup of the highest tier and the next one.
The associations, especially the Karachi, Lahore and Quetta ones, have questioned the mandate of an ad hoc nominee to ask a former judge of the high court to draft a new constitution. Besides, if at all the job was assigned to Justice Bhandari the new document should have been sent to the regional bodies for vetting, getting suggestion and opinions and amendments for it will be their representatives who will form the General Body.
The officials of the associations presume that Justice Bhandari, having held the august post of a judge of the high court, may not have dispensed with the democratic process and may have made the chairman, an ad hoc one, accountable to the board's highest tier.
The document is still a well-kept secret and one feels that the clauses of the constitution may be in accord with the expectations of the associations and the general followers of cricket affairs.
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