Media Release - 12 April 2005

Scrutiny and Elections held under the Supervision of Pakistan Cricket Board in 2004 and 2005

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has been working to inculcate democratic governance into Pakistan's cricket-playing districts by first conducting scrutiny of cricket clubs in each district and then conducting elections there.

Scrutiny Process
The aim of the scrutiny process is to establish genuineness of cricket clubs in accordance with the criteria set out by PCB. A Scrutiny Committee was established by PCB in 1994 to carry out this task.

The Scrutiny Committee, led by Abdul Jaleel Khan along with Abdul Rauf Farooqi, Abdul Sami Khan and Anwar Khan as members of the Committee, conducted the scrutiny of cricket clubs in the districts of Punjab and Sindh in 2004 and 2005 (to-date).

The scrutiny of clubs is a much more laborious and time-consuming exercise than holding of elections as the Scrutiny Committee has to visit each tehsil and village of every district and evaluate cricketing activity there. The Committee makes a distinction between the active and non-active clubs and only active clubs are granted electoral rights. Scrutiny for each district can last up to a month according to the schedule.

The clubs which qualify from the scrutiny process are then eligible to participate in elections in their own districts. The clubs, under the supervision of PCB's Election Commission, elect a President, a Secretary and a Treasurer in each district to constitute an office-bearing body which would represent the district in all cricketing matters.

Election Process
Before the elections, the Election Commission gives a briefing to all representatives of the clubs in the district and to candidates who would like to contest elections. Written objections are filed with the Election Commission by individual clubs after the briefing session. These objections are closely examined by the Election Commission and decisions are taken on merit.

The duration of the election process takes one to two days in a district. Elections are conducted in a fair and transparent manner. Votes are cast by each President of a club which has been assessed to be active by the Scrutiny Committee and the candidates with the most number of votes for President, Secretary and Treasurer are elected for the respective posts. In some cases, clubs go into litigation and the elections in that particular district are suspended till the matter is resolved by court.

The Election Commission, headed by Election Commissioner Javed Zaman Khan and Shehzad Rana as Presiding Officer, conducted elections of District Cricket Associations of Punjab and Sindh in 2004 and 2005 (to-date). Apart from 3 districts, elections in the districts of NWFP had been completed in 2003.

Revival of Electoral Process After 27 Years
Since 2004, scrutiny and elections have been held in 26 out of the 70 cricket-playing districts. This represents 37.1 % of the total districts. Some of these districts include regions of Sind where proper elections had not been conducted since 1978, a gap of 27 years. Cricket associations were usually not cooperative in helping conduct elections during this period as office bearers wanted to remain in power.

PCB Constitution The new PCB Constitution, a draft of which will be submitted to the President of Pakistan (Patron of PCB) by April 30, 2005, will incorporate the role of the Election Commission to conduct elections in cricket-playing districts periodically.

Scrutiny/Elections held under the supervision of PCB in 2004/05
	Punjab		Sindh
Sr.#	Month	District	Month	District
1	Dec-04	Bahawalpur	Mar-05	Badin
2	Jul-04	Faisalabad	Mar-05	Hyderabad
3	Oct-04	Gujranwala	Jun-04	Larkana
4	Jan-04	Hafizabad	Mar-05	Mirpurkhas
5	Mar-04	Jhang	Mar-05	Nawabshah
6	Jul-04	Jhelum	Mar-05	Sanjhar
7	Jul-04	Kasur	Jun-04	Shikarpur
8	Apr-04	Khanewal	Jun-04	Sukkur
9	Apr-04	Multan	Mar-05	Thatta
10	Sep-Oct-0r	Narowal
11	Sep-04	Okara
12	Apr-04	R.Y.Khan
13	Nov-Dec-04	* Rawalpindi
14	Sep-04	Sahiwal
15	Mar-04	Sargodha
16	Jan-04	Sheikhupura
17	Nov-04	Sialkot
		17		9
		Total: 26**
Note : * The scrutiny of Rawalpindi has already been conducted and the elections of Rawalpindi Cricket Association will be held in due course of time. ** In all, elections have been completed in 42 out of the 70 districts. *** The scrutiny of districts Rajanput and Bahawalnagar is already in progress.

More Scrutiny/Elections Planned
The process of scrutiny and elections will continue till all cricket-playing districts of Pakistan have undergone this process. It is expected that elections in all districts of the country will be completed within the next one year.

Abbas Zaidi
Director Board Operations

(Article: Copyright © 2005 Pakistan Cricket Board)