The Federal Cabinet has approved Samina Rizwan as Independent Director on the vacant slot of the National Bank of Pakistan Board for a term of three years.
Sources said that the finance division had forwarded the summary with regard to the appointment of an independent director as the NBP board.
As per the appointment of directors on the board of directors of NBP in terms of Section 11(1) & (2) of Bank’s (Nationalization) Act, 1974, a bank shall have a Board consisting of a President who shall be the Chief Executive; not less than five and not more than seven other members and a Chairman of the Board.
Section 11(3)(a) of the Act authorizes the Federal Government to appoint the Chairman, the President and other members of the Board of the Bank in consultation with the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) for a term of three years.
Presently, Zubyr Soomro is Chairman while President NBP is Arif Usmani, Directors include Asif Jooma, Tawfiq Asghar Hussain, Sadaffe Abid, Imam Bakhsh Baloch and Ahsan Ali Chughtai.
To fill the vacant position on the board of NBP, a summary for the Cabinet was moved on September 10, 2021.
It is pertinent to note that the Federal Cabinet in its meeting held on September 21, 2021, in case No. 895/31/2021 approved the appointment of Sarwar Iqbal as Independent Director on the Board of NBP.
During FPT clearance, NBP forwarded an email of Sarwar Iqbal dated October 05, 2021 informing therein that due to personal reasons, he would not be able to take up the position and had accordingly withdrawn his name from consideration resultantly, the slot is still vacant on NBP’s Board.
A committee was constituted vide Finance Division’s notification dated September 23, 2021, to give recommendations to the Finance Minister regarding suitable professionals for filling up vacant positions on the Board of Directors (BoDs) of Public Sectors Companies and DFIs under the Finance Division.
The committee, in its meeting held on November 26, 2021, has recommended the name of Samina Rizwan to fill the vacant slot on NBP’s Board. The statutory requirement of initial consultation with SBP has also been met and SBP has stated that the nominee apparently meets fit and proper test criteria.
