Pakistan court orders cricket board elections

Islamabad: The turmoil at the top of Pakistani cricket took another turn on Monday as a court ordered elections for the board chairman to be held in two weeks.

The ruling by the Islamabad High Court appears to have scuppered moves by a new Interim Management Committee (IMC) to delay choosing a permanent chairman for the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). The PCB has been in uproar since May, when the Islamabad court threw out the then-chairman Zaka Ashraf over what it called the "dubious" process by which he was elected. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif appointed veteran journalist Najam Sethi as interim PCB chairman in June but a month later the court ordered Sethi to hold elections by October 18. Last week, Sharif took over as PCB patron and appointed the IMC to take over the day-to-day running of the game in an effort to end the months of confusion. The IMC wanted to put elections for the chairman back to allow time for various local cricket associations to resolve outstanding legal issues. But high court judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui on Monday ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan to press ahead with elections. PCB legal adviser Taffazul Rizvi said the court had ordered elections for the post of chairman to be held by November 2. The Pakistani board has faced administrative problems ever since its creation in 1948 with a series of ad-hoc committees running affairs, though a proper board structure was set up in 2007. On the field, Pakistan have given the fans something to cheer about with a convincing seven-wicket win over world number one Test side South Africa in Abu Dhabi last week.