The Sports Ministry was yet to officially announce the name but PCB officials confirmed they had been told Butt would head cricket affairs.

“He is the chosen man by the President but the Ministry will make the announcement later on Tuesday,” a senior official said.

Butt, who played in eight Tests, has been active on the cricket scene for sometime now and is presently a member of the PCB’s governing body.

He was one of the strongest critics of the Board and former Chairman Nasim Ashraf who resigned in August after Pervez Musharraf stepped as Pakistan President.

Butt’s induction is expected to lead to major changes in the Board as the current set up does not include any of his favourites.

Interestingly, the decision to appoint Butt came as a result of a reported tiff between Sports Minister Najamuddin Khan and Law Minister Farooq Naek over who should represent Pakistan at the ICC Executive Board meeting in Dubai later this month.

Former Test players, who recently met with Naek in Lahore, and Board officials were against Najamuddin attending the ICC meeting as they felt he was not prepared to attend such an important meeting in which the new dates for the Champions Trophy are expected to be decided.

Naek had told the players on Sunday he would speak to the Sports Minister and try to convince him to send someone well versed with cricket matters but Khan reportedly refused to budge down.

A PCB official also confirmed that names of 15 players had also been sent to the Sports Ministry for approval for the four-nation Twenty20 tournament in Toronto from October 10.

He confirmed that senior batsman Mohammad Yousuf and all-rounder Yasir Arafat, whose names were sent for visas to the Canadian high commission, were refused visas and they were not included in the team.

“The Canadian high commission had raised some questions about the two players,” the official said.