IHC orders removal of NBP president, chairman

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) ordered on Tuesday removal of National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) president Arif Usmani and chairman Zubair Soomro.

An Islamabad High Court (IHC) single bench comprising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani announced the judgement that it had reserved earlier this month after hearing arguments from the lawyers representing the petitioners and respondents.

The court ruled that both the NBP president and chairman are ineligible to hold their posts.

Syed Jahangir, Javed Iqbal, Fazal Raheem and Latif Qureshi challenged the appointment of the National Bank of Pakistan president. They assailed the government’s notification dated January 12, 2019 regarding the appointment of Usmani as NBP president.

In August 2019, the government had appointed Arif Usmani as new CEO and President of the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP). The post of the president had been lying vacant since the government suspended former president Saeed Ahmad on a request by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) over his alleged involvement in a money laundering case.

The PTI government suspended Saeed Ahmad on August 28, 2018.