ISLAMABAD - Federal government has decided to file review petition in the Supreme Court against Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Zaka Ashraf's reinstatement by the Islamabad High Court (IHC), as the government has enough evidences against Zaka's financial embezzlements.
The highly-informed sources in the government have confirmed to this scribe that federal government is all set to appeal in the Supreme Court in a day or two while Inter Provincial Coordination (IPC) Ministry have also given go ahead to file the appeal.
Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif, who is also PCB patron-in-chief, had appointed Najam Sethi as the PCB Interim Committee Chairman after the IHC dismissed Zaka Ashraf. But Zaka then filed a review petition in the same court against Sethi's appointment and the IHC gave verdict in Zaka's favour and he was restored as chairman.
The sources have revealed that soon after Zaka’s reinstatement, Sethi had made several contacts with high government officials and also had a secret meeting with the PM at his residence in Lahore. After going through details, the PM gave signal to the IPC to file review petition in the Supreme Court against Zaka. The IPC panel of lawyers has started working on that and the appeal is near completion.
An inside source in the IPC on condition of anonymity has confirmed that the IPC Ministry will file appeal in the Supreme Court against Zaka’s reinstatement and as soon as the top IPC officials give clearance in this regard, the appeal will be filed in a day or two. “All the ground work in this regard has been completed and now it's only a matter of time, when the appeal will be submitted in the SC,” the source concluded.
It is pertinent to mention here that Sethi is striving hard to get back the lucrative hot seat and has met with the PM in this regard. According to sources, he didn't get the desired result from that meeting, which he was expecting, but a very powerful lobby, who is backing Sethi, managed to convince the PM to look into the matter and finally got the PM’s approval.