IHC seeks SBP’s reply on appointment of NBP president, chairman

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday served a notice to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on a petition challenging the appointment of National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) President, Arif Usmani, and board of directors (BoD) Chairman, Zubair Soomro.

Justice Mohsin Akhter Kiyani of IHC heard the petition filed by citizens Syed Jahangir, Javed Iqbal, Fazal Raheem and Latif Qureshi.

Usmani’s counsel, Ahmed Bilal Sufi, pleaded that the NBP had earned good profit under stewardship of current president. He also research by The Wall Street Journal which argues that physics graduates are successful in every field.

The court remarked that if a degree has no connection with a field then a judge could also be appointed as a bank head.

Advocate GM Chaudhry, the counsel of Latif Qureshi, stated that there were others who had scored high in physics and that their rights were violated by not being given a chance to apply for the position. 

Soomro’s lawyer said that the petitions are based on malafide intentions as the petitioner is not an affected party. 

Advocate Waqar Naqvi replied that any person can file a petition in any case as per the constitution. “There is a new cause of action every day in illegal appointments, while Transparency International Pakistanh (TIP) has reported corruption in the bank,” Naqvi added.

Advocate Shahid Kamal in his arguments said that Usmani had shared his CV with Asad Umar and the president has also admitted it many times.

He also read out the transcript of Usmani’s interview in the court.

In reply, Justice Kiyani said that it is necessary to advertise the posts and also questioned why the SBP did not scrutinise Usmani’s physics degree.

Concluding the hearing, the court summoned the central bank’s representative on June 2.