A change in PCB leadership could be imminent as the management committee led by Najam Sethi begins the last two weeks of its tenure, and the leading contender to replace him is his old rival and former board chairman Zaka Ashraf.

On June 7, Sethi met Pakistan's prime minister Shahbaz Sharif at his residence in Islamabad to brief him about the PCB's progress over the last five months. A few kilometres away, Ashraf had a meeting with the federal minister for inter-provincial coordination (IPC), Ehsan ur Rehman Mazari, who acts as a conduit between the PCB and the government. With the IPC being the ministry that deals with sports in Pakistan, Mazari confirmed Zaka was being nominated to head the PCB.

"When this government was formed, it was decided that parties [in the alliance] who have respective ministries will have a say in naming the man for the respective job," Mazari said on Wednesday. "Hence, IPC is with PPP, so we will have our man [in the PCB]. Also, Sethi's nomination [for the full term] is a conflict of interest as he is heading the management committee tasked to carry out elections but they are becoming a part of the process and getting them elected."

Sethi's committee was then given a two-month extension to complete its tasks and that extension will end on June 22. Its biggest undertaking was to conduct elections across all of Pakistan's provinces. It required the PCB to form a board of governors comprising ten members: four out of the 16 regional representatives, four representatives of services organisations, and two members directly nominated by the PCB patron, which is the prime minister. The term of each member of the BoG is three years - equivalent to one term of the chairman.

Once the board is formed, the prime minister will use his discretion to nominate two names, of which one will become PCB chairman through an electoral process within the board.