Najam Sethi resigns from the post of Chairman Pakistan Cricket Board
Sports Times International Report by;
Asghar Ali Mubarak
The former chief minister Punjab Najam Sethi said that he was stepping down as Chairman of Pakistan Cricket Board. The Prime Minister Imran Khan had in 2014 accused Sethi of being ‘rewarded’ with the PCB chairmanship in return for ’35 punctures’ — an allusion to the ‘fixing’ of results of 35 constituencies in the 2013 election in favour of the PML-N.
“I was waiting for the new Prime Minister to take oath before submitting my resignation as PCB Chairman, which I have done today. I wish PCB all the best and hope our cricket team goes from strength to strength. Eid Mubarak. Pakistan Zindabad,” Sethi said in a Twitter statement which also carried a copy of his resignation to Prime Minister Imran Khan.
“I was nominated to the Board of Governors of the Pakistan Cricket Board (as per the Pakistan Cricket Board Constitution of 2014 by the ICC and Supreme Court of Pakistan) by ex-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from 2014-17 and then again from 2017-2020 by ex-Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi,” Sethi wrote. “I was unanimously elected Chairman PCB in August 2017 by all ten members of the BoG for a three-year term ending in 2020. I believe I have served the cause of cricket diligently,” he said.
“You have said on many occasions that you have a vision for Pakistan cricket. Therefore, it is only proper that you should assume charge and responsibility for assembling a management team for PCB that enjoys your full confidence and trust.”
“In order to facilitate your objectives in the interest of Pakistan cricket, I hereby submit my resignation as Chairman of PCB and Member of its BOG,” he concluded.
About; Najam Aziz Sethi
He served as Chairman of Pakistan Cricket Board. As a journalist he is a left-leaning political commentator who serves as the editor-in-chief of The Friday Times and serves as Chairman of Pakistan Super League. He has also served as the caretaker chief minister of Punjab during the 2013 election. He formerly used to host prime time current affairs show Aapas ki Baat on Geo News.
Born in Lahore, Sethi studied economics at the Government College, and later moved to Clare College at Cambridge University where he received his master’s degree in economics and progressed as a PhD student; however, he left to join a socialist movement working for the rights of Baluchistan, leading to his arrest in 1975 before being discharged in 1978. He consequently left politics and established Vanguard Books, a progressive book publishing company.
In 1989, Sethi along with his wife Jugnu Mohsin launched an independent English weekly, The Friday Times. He was arrested by the second Nawaz Sharif government in 1999 on trumped-up charges of treason before being released by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Sethi won the 1999 International Press Freedom Award of the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists and the 2009 World Association of Newspapers’ Golden Pen of Freedom Award. On 26 March 2013, his name was approved for the interim position of the chief minister of Punjab as a result of consensus between members of the selection committee comprising individuals from both the governing and the opposing political parties. He took the oath on 27 March 2013, and left the office after the May 2013 elections on 6 June 2013.
