Alia Zafar becomes the first female director of PCB

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for the first time in history appointed a female as one of the directors of the board. Human resources executive Alia Zafar has been included as one of the four independent members in the Board of Governors (BoG). Alia will hold this position for a period of two years.

A female was appointed as a director as Pakistan’s new law states that it is mandatory for the authorities to include at least one woman among four independent directors on its board of governors.

Along with Alia, finance executive Javed Kurieshi, economist Asim Wajid Jawad and corporate executive Arif Saeed have also been appointed as BoGs. While Kurieshi and Saeed are appointed for three years, Wajid will be there for two years like Alia.

The inclusion of the four new members was done on Monday as PCB’s board of governors hosted their 59th meeting at the National High-performance center in Lahore.

In a statement, the Pakistan board said, “Following the appointment of the four independent members, the new BoG has been formed. The remaining three members on the board of directors will be appointed following completion of the election process at the Cricket Association level.”

PCB CEO welcomes Alia Zafar to the board

The PCB chairman Ehsan Mani also congratulated Alia Zafar for being the first female director of the Pakistan board and gave an insight on the further selection of members.

“Following the promulgation of the new PCB Constitution in 2019, these distinguished members, on my request,have agreed to continue through the transitional period and provide the PCB management appropriate guidance through their knowledge and insight.” PCB chairman Ehsan Mani said.

“I welcome the newly-appointed independent members, especially Ms Alia Zafar, the first female independent member, which is a giant step forward in enhancing the PCB’s governance structure,” he added.

PCB has revamped its structure and as a result only six provincial teams namely Balochistan, Central Punjab, Southern Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Northern will be allowed to compete in premier first-class cricket tournaments. For more than 50 years, banks fielded teams in first-class tournaments alongside city-based teams in Pakistan.