ISLAMABAD: A division bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), on Thursday, suspended a single bench’s verdict to remove Arif Usmani and Zubair Soomro from the offices of the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) president and its chairman.

The bench comprising Chief Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Aamer Farooq heard the Intra-Court Appeal (ICA) filed by the secretary Ministry of Finance challenging the single bench’s verdict dated June 29.

A single bench of IHC Justice Mohsin Akhter Kayani had directed the federal government to immediately remove the NBP President, Arif Usmani, and Chairman of its Board of Directors (BoD) Zubair Soomro.

The bench had passed the judgment in response to the petitions of Abdul Latif Qureshi, Syed Jahangir, Javed Iqbal, and Fazal Raheem.

In the ICA, the secretary finance adopted that the impugned judgment is against the law on the subject and fact of the case hence, not tenable in the eyes of the law and is thus, liable to be aside.

The ICA said, “The IHC single bench has failed to examine, discuss and appreciate the objection regarding mala fides of the petitioners in filing the writ petition. It is humbly submitted that various similar petitions were systematically filed in High Court at Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi with mala fide intend to derail the technological and managerial changes introduced by the new management of NBP.

“The malicious intent of the Respondent No 1 (Abdul Latif Qureshi who filed the petition challenging the appointments) is further illuminated by the unexplained delay of twenty months before challenging the appointment indicating towards the fact that the petitioner had ulterior motives behind filing the petition.

“The court has failed to examine, discuss and appreciate objection that the writ petition is hit by laches. The impugned judgment having not eluded to this crucial point relating to maintainability and ignoring the unexplained laches coupled with the malicious conduct of the respondent is liable to be set aside in accordance with the settled principles of law.

The finance secretary; therefore, prayed before the court that the instant appeal may be accepted and the impugned judgment passed by the IHC single bench may be set aside.

He also requested the court to suspend the operation of the said verdict until the final decision of the ICA.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021