The PCB has moved the ongoing first-class President’s Trophy Grade 1 tournament out of Peshawar and Abbottabad after the federal government declared a state of emergency and imposed governor’s rule in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province following political turmoil in the region, where the two cities are located.

This year’s President’s Trophy has been hosted in four cities so far, Islamabad and Rawalpindi the other two.

While the matches in Islamabad and Rawalpindi will continue as scheduled with the sixth round commencing on Monday, the matches slotted for Peshawar’s Imran Khan Stadium and Abbottabad Cricket Stadium have been rescheduled to begin from October 14 at Rana Naveed Academy in Sheikhupura (Ghani vs Hyderabad Kingsmen Academy) and the LCCA Ground, which is adjacent to the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore (Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited vs Oil and Gas Development Company Limited).

The ongoing round is the penultimate one of the league stage. Cricinfo has learnt that LCCA Ground will also host the last-round fixture between Markhor IT Solutions and Pakistan TV, while the National Cricket Ground in Islamabad will host Hyderabad Kingsmen Academy vs State Bank of Pakistan (the Diamond Club ground is the other venue in use in the city).

The final round of matches have been pushed back by a day and will begin from October 19.

The league-stage of the President’s Trophy is played in a round-robin format with all eight teams facing each other once. The top two teams compete in the final, the venue for which is yet to be confirmed.

While Abbottabad Cricket Stadium has hosted first-class cricket regularly over the years, senior men’s domestic cricket returned to the Imran Khan Stadium last season – after a gap of almost seven years – when it hosted nine Quaid-e-Azam Trophy matches. The ground has undergone extensive renovation and the PCB has been keen to host top-flight cricket there.

Peshawar was allotted its maiden PSL game this year after its hosting capabilities were trialled at the National T20 Cup earlier in the year, but the PCB had to limit the tournament to Lahore and Karachi in line with the federal government’s fuel-conservation measures following the West Asia crisis.

State Bank of Pakistan currently leads the President’s Trophy table with 84 points, followed by Ghani, who have 70 points. Hyderabad Kingsmen Academy, Pakistan TV, Markhor IT Solutions and Oil and Gas Development Company Limited have all won a match each, while Khan Research Laboratories and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited, the finalists last season, are yet to win a game.