ISLAMABAD: The Federal Government has appointed Sarwar Iqbal as Independent Director of National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) Board in place of ex-officio member Finance Division.
The Finance Division briefed the Cabinet on September 21, 2021 that in terms of Section 11(1)(b) of Bank’s (Nationalization) Act, 1974, National Bank of Pakistan (NBP)’s Board should consist of not less than 5 and not more than 7 members (excluding Chairman and President). In terms of Section 11(3)(a) of the Act the Chairman, the President and other members of the Board of a Bank were appointed by the Federal Government in consultation with State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) for a term of three years.
The present composition of the Board of Directors of NBP was as follows (i) Zubyr Soomro/ Chairman ;(ii) Arif Usmani/ President/ CEO;(iii) Arif Jooma /Director;(iv) Tawfiq Asghar Hussain/ Director;(v) Sadaffe Abid/ Director;(vi) Imam Bakhsh Baloch/ Director;(vii) Ahsan Ali Chughtai/ Director and ;(viii) Farid Malik, CFA/ Private Director.
The Federal Cabinet, in its meeting held on May 04, 2021 decided as follows: - “The Cabinet considered the Summary titled ‘appointment of Directors on the Board of Directors of National Bank of Pakistan April 30, 2021,’ submitted by the Finance Division, and approved para 5 thereof i.e., the appointment of Ahsan Ali Chughtai as Independent Director on the NBP’s Board for a term of three years, and Additional Secretary (IF/Inv) as ex-officio member. The Cabinet directed the Finance Division to reconsider the nomination/ appointment of ex-officio members on various Boards in future.”
The Finance Division had issued Notification dated June 21, 2021 for appointment of Ahsan Ali Chughtai as Independent Director on the Board of NBP for a term of three years. Further, Finance Division had reviewed the nomination/appointment of Additional Finance Secretary (IF/Inv) of Finance Division as ex-officio member on NBP’s Board in the light of Cabinet’s direction and had decided to exclude the ex-officio member from the Board. The Finance Division evaluated the potential/competent candidates of the country for the said position and short listed the following panel of three eminent Bankers /Chartered Accountants having considerable experience of senior most management positions of the banks/companies during their careers. The statutory requirement of initial consultation with SBP had also been done. The SBP had initially cleared all three persons.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021