IHC reinstates NBP president, BoD chairman

ISLAMABAD: An Islamabad High Court (IHC) division bench suspended a single bench’s June 28 verdict that set aside appointments of president of the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) Arif Usmani and chairman of its board of directors Zubair Soomro.

The two-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Aamir Farooq reinstated both top NBP officials in their posts.

The bench took up separate appeals filed by the Ministry of Finance and the NBP challenging the IHC single bench verdict.

READ: IHC ORDERS REMOVAL OF NBP PRESIDENT, CHAIRMAN

On June 28, Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani set aside the appointments of NBP president Arif Usmani and chairman of its board of directors Zubair Soomro.

Syed Jahangir, Javed Iqbal, Fazal Raheem and Latif Qureshi filed a petition challenging the Jan 12, 2019 notification of these appointments. They contended that the appointments had been made in violation of the constitutional rights that called for equal opportunity for every citizen.

In August 2019, the government had appointed Arif Usmani as new CEO and President of the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP).