The Pakistani elite, especially the elected representatives, can spend thousands and thousands at some coffee shops and on dinner and millions on weddings but when it comes to the official business they find it hard to spend a penny and would prefer free passes for public events like cricket matches and would use all possible resources to achieve the aim.

They follow this principle religiously, which was proved yet again on Friday, as the National Assembly Inter-provincial Coordination Committee witnessed an exchange of hot words over PSL tickets.

Pakistan Super League 2020 is underway in different cities of the country. Of lately, huge crowds have thronged the stadiums in Multan and Rawalpindi.

It started when Munawar Bibi, a committee member, expressed her unhappiness with PCB Chairman Ehsan Mani over the members not getting tickets free of cost. To which Mani replied that they would buy tickets for them.

On this, the respected members of the committee got infuriated, asking the PCB chief what he meant by buying tickets for them. They considered it as disrespectful to them and sought an apology from him. “We do not want your tickets,” they said.

Later, Mani apologised to the committee members. The meeting was also attended by Federal Minister for Inter-provincial Coordination Fehmida Mirza.

But before the apology tendered by Mani, the committee members also sought details of the salary/ perks and privileges being enjoyed by the PCB chairman.

In their reply, the PCB officials said the chairman did not receive any salary although an amount of Rs12.2 million was his ‘right’.

Mani said the details of the PCB expenses were available on its website and requested the meeting to allow an in-camera briefing on the PCB officials’ salaries.

Talking about the cricket affairs in the country, he noted that there was no cricket at school and college levels.