Former Pakistan skipper Ramiz Raja formally elected as PCB chairman
Lahore, (PTI): Former captain Ramiz Raja was on Monday unanimously elected as the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for a three-year term, succeeding Ehsan Mani who stepped down from the post last month.
This is Raja's second stint with the PCB. He had served as the Board's chief executive from 2003 to 2004.
The special meeting was presided by PCB election commissioner, Justice (retd) Sheikh Azmat Saeed at the National High Performance Centre.
Raja was nominated for the position by Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is also the patron-in-chief of the Board. Addressing a media conference after taking over, Raja promised to empower the national captain.
"I am not going to be that Chairman who will deflect responsibility to others. I am prepared to face everything. There are two things on which I am not going to be on the back-foot, cricket and broadcasting because I have ample experience in both areas," he said at a media conference here after taking over.
"I am very clear in my mind that cricket may have changed over the years but one thing remains the same and that is total authority must be with the team captain because he is the one who has to make the team fight on the field and get results," Raja added
The 59-year-old commentator, who was part of Pakistan's triumphant campaign in the 1992 World Cup, has become the fourth international cricketer to head the PCB after Abdul Hafeez Kardar (1972-1977), Javed Burki (1994-1995) and Ijaz Butt (2008-2011).
Raja, who played more than 250 international matches for Pakistan from 1984 to 1997 and scored 8,674 runs, replaces the country's veteran cricket administrator Mani.
Raja said one of his biggest aims is to bring back the glory days of the Pakistan men's team that was once a force to reckon with in the international arena.
Addressing the Board of Governors (BoG) following his election, Raja said: "I am thankful to all of you for electing me as the PCB chairman and look forward to working with you to ensure Pakistan cricket continues to thrive and grow stronger, both on and off-the-field."
"One of my key focuses will be to help introduce in the Pakistan men's cricket team the same culture, mind-set, attitude and approach that once made Pakistan one of the most feared cricket playing nations.
"As an organisation, we all need to get behind the national team and provide them the desired assistance and support so that they can produce that brand of cricket, which the fans also expect from them each time they step on to the field of play."
In 2003-04, he had also served as the CEO of the Board under the chairmanship of Shahryar Khan.
The former opener added, "Obviously, as a former cricketer, my other priority will be to look into the welfare of our past and present cricketers.
"The game has and will always be about the cricketers and, as such, they deserve more recognition and respect from their parent institution."
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Single higher education regulator bill tabled in LS; Oppn flags ‘centralisation,' JPC likely
New Delhi: A bill to set up a 13-member body to regulate institutions of higher education was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan introduced the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, which seeks to establish an overarching higher education commission along with three councils for regulation, accreditation, and ensuring academic standards for universities and higher education institutions in India.
Meanwhile, the move drew strong opposition, with members warning that it could weaken institutional autonomy and result in excessive centralisation of higher education in India.
The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, earlier known as the Higher Education Council of India (HECI) Bill, has been introduced in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The proposed legislation seeks to merge three existing regulatory bodies, the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), into a single unified body called the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan.
At present, the UGC regulates non-technical higher education institutions, the AICTE oversees technical education, and the NCTE governs teacher education in India.
Under the proposed framework, the new commission will function through three separate councils responsible for regulation, accreditation, and the maintenance of academic standards across universities and higher education institutions in the country.
According to the Bill, the present challenges faced by higher educational institutions due to the multiplicity of regulators having non-harmonised regulatory approval protocols will be done away with.
The higher education commission, which will be headed by a chairperson appointed by the President of India, will cover all central universities and colleges under it, institutes of national importance functioning under the administrative purview of the Ministry of Education, including IITs, NITs, IISc, IISERs, IIMs, and IIITs.
At present, IITs and IIMs are not regulated by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Government to refer bill to JPC; Oppn slams it
The government has expressed its willingness to refer it to a joint committee after several members of the Lok Sabha expressed strong opposition to the Bill, stating that they were not given time to study its provisions.
Responding to the opposition, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the government intends to refer the Bill to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for detailed examination.
Congress Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari warned that the Bill could result in “excessive centralisation” of higher education. He argued that the proposed law violates the constitutional division of legislative powers between the Union and the states.
According to him, the Bill goes beyond setting academic standards and intrudes into areas such as administration, affiliation, and the establishment and closure of university campuses. These matters, he said, fall under Entry 25 of the Concurrent List and Entry 32 of the State List, which cover the incorporation and regulation of state universities.
Tewari further stated that the Bill suffers from “excessive delegation of legislative power” to the proposed commission. He pointed out that crucial aspects such as accreditation frameworks, degree-granting powers, penalties, institutional autonomy, and even the supersession of institutions are left to be decided through rules, regulations, and executive directions. He argued that this amounts to a violation of established constitutional principles governing delegated legislation.
Under the Bill, the regulatory council will have the power to impose heavy penalties on higher education institutions for violating provisions of the Act or related rules. Penalties range from ₹10 lakh to ₹75 lakh for repeated violations, while establishing an institution without approval from the commission or the state government could attract a fine of up to ₹2 crore.
Concerns were also raised by members from southern states over the Hindi nomenclature of the Bill. N.K. Premachandran, an MP from the Revolutionary Socialist Party representing Kollam in Kerala, said even the name of the Bill was difficult to pronounce.
He pointed out that under Article 348 of the Constitution, the text of any Bill introduced in Parliament must be in English unless Parliament decides otherwise.
DMK MP T.M. Selvaganapathy also criticised the government for naming laws and schemes only in Hindi. He said the Constitution clearly mandates that the nomenclature of a Bill should be in English so that citizens across the country can understand its intent.
Congress MP S. Jothimani from Tamil Nadu’s Karur constituency described the Bill as another attempt to impose Hindi and termed it “an attack on federalism.”
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