ISLAMABAD - The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has terminated the contracts of 23 employees, which include the likes of leg spin legend Abdul Qadir, Azmat Rana, Shafiqe Ahmed and others.
Talking to The Nation on Wednesday, Abdul Qadir said: “Two days back, I was given a notice in which around 89 names were mentioned, but that notice was withdrawn and another was sent on Wednesday in which the number was reduced to 23. I cannot understand the treatment rendered by the PCB. If the previous list of 89 was made on merit, then why it is not applied and on what grounds the remaining persons were retained and only 23 have been shown the door.”
He further said: “It is sheer violation as the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in its order has clearly directed the PCB to terminate all the employees who were hired during the Zaka Ashraf’s era. If the PCB had implemented the court orders in true letter and spirit, I would have resigned after declaring my intentions for contesting the chairmanship elections. The board in fact had made my work easy as it is quite disheartening that the PCB rendered a very harsh treatment to former greats. While on the other hand, there are people sitting in board from the past 20 years or so and no one bothered about them. The PCB must explain their roles and performances for the past so many years.”
“I offer myself for accountability and it is my challenge nobody in the country worked more than me as I really worked hard throughout the year on producing leg spin bowlers for the country,” he added.
“It is not the PCB which produces cricket greats but they are former and present greats who make the PCB. It is due to our day and night tireless efforts, the PCB is harvesting which we had sown,” Qadir stated.
He asked the board to explain the roles of high-profile employees, who despite getting million in salaries have been done nothing for the promotion of cricket. If the board really wants to reduce its monthly bills, then it should do that in transparent manner. The right-sizing should be purely based on performances, not for settling personal scores. Majority of employees, whose contracts were not renewed, were depending solely on the monthly salaries. What will they do now and how will they earn their bread and butter? This shows double standards of the board as instead of showing doors to those persons hired and that too on regular jobs during the Zaka Ashraf tenure, the PCB’s sword fell on those deserving persons who have given their lives to cricket.”
“It is my request to PCB interim committee chairman Najam Sethi to look into the matter of grave injustice and make sure justice should be done. Those who are major stake holders and earning millions of monthly salaries and enjoying perks and privileges should be sacked as they, in fact, are the real burden as far as reducing of monthly expenditures are concerned,” the leg spin legend added.
“I, along with other sincere former cricket greats, will monitor the entire situation closely and announce our future line of action after the things settle down. We can't sit back and watch injustice being rendered to genuine persons,” Qadir concluded.