KARACHI: An inquiry of the Senate Standing Committee on Sports and Culture into the reasons for Pakistan’s cricket defeat to India last year has now encompassed questions about the monthly electricity and gas bills at the residence of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Shaharyar Khan.

According to the details gathered by this correspondent, some of the Senators on the standing committee —in their questionnaire sent to the Board sometime back —have asked for the details about the electricity and gas bills at Shaharyar’s residence.

These are besides other questions inquiring about other personal details of the PCB chairman in the questionnaire.

Leaving one wondering just what do these irrelevant details have to do with the inquiry started in the first place to find out why Pakistan lost to India last year at home.

Interestingly, while Senator Kamil Agha, who had moved the motion for the inquiry, now accepted that Pakistan’s defeat was related to only cricketing reasons, the inquiry has now been turned into a personal confrontation with Shaharyar by three opposition Senators —Enver Baig, Dr Firdous Kousar and Murad Ali Shah.

Culminating in the walkout by them at the last hearing few days back because Shaharyar refused to submit them copies of the draft of the (PCB) constitution, which he had given to the principal secretary of the President, who is the chief patron of the Board.

The walkout came despite Shaharyar making it clear that until the chief patron looked at the draft, it was not ethically correct for him to release the document publicly but he was prepared to answer all queries from the committee. He also pointed out that never before in the history of the Board had any constitution ever been submitted to the National Assembly or Senate for vetting or discussion as the Board was an autonomous body controlled directly by the President.

Privately though it’s a well-known fact that Shaharyar was sceptical about handing over the documents because of the past instances where some Senators had leaked out the confidential documents to the press.

The strong tone and tenor used by Baig and the other Senators, in fact, had also compelled the PCB chief —himself a career diplomat for 32 years —to request the chairman of the standing committee Zafar Iqbal Chaudhary to ensure he is not subjected to "McCarthyism", which is a popular word used to describe an unjust witch-hunt against any individual by an institution or government. But ironically despite the entire storm raised by Baig and the other Senators against Shaharyar and the Board, the performances of the PCB and national senior and junior teams have come in for a lot of praise from the highest quarters and even members of the Senate Standing Committee. As has the Board’s historical and successful hosting of the home series against India which has served as a catalyst for better relations with India.

So much so that the prime minister and the president have even hosted receptions for the teams.

Which is why one is left wondering just whose war Senator Baig is fighting against Shaharyar and the PCB.

And the question also arises why the Senate committee is now so worried about the ad-hoc system in the Board which has been enforce in Pakistan cricket since mid 1999 when the Nawaz Sharif government was in power.

Since then there have been three Ad-hoc Committee chairmen in Mujeeb-ur-Rehman, Dr Zafar Altaf and Lt General (retd) Tauqir Zia who served a four-year term. Tauqir Zia, throughout his tenure, spoke about the need for having a new constitution of the Board but could never really get down to preparing it finally and submitting it to the chief patron for implementation; on the other hand, at least Shaharyar Khan has managed to do that.

This is not to say that Shaharyar has not made some administrative mistakes or not favoured his trusted aides (which every previous PCB chairman has done) during his tenure but at least one has seen an honest will in him and his team to achieve something positive for Pakistan cricket.

Clearly at a time when Pakistan cricket appears to be making progress and some positive and long-term steps are being taken by the Board it appears peculiar that the PCB and its officials should be subjected to an inquiry which started off on a one-point agenda and has ended up becoming something else.

The interesting part is that so far ten hearings of the Senate committee have been held without an end in sight and this leaves one wondering: is Pakistan cricket benefiting from inquiries that have been turned into personal crusades?

This article appeared in The News on 20 June 2005

(Article: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author only. This article is published courtesy of The News
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