SHC orders conducting process of finalisation of NIC CEO lawfully

The Sindh High Court has ordered that process of finalisation of the name of the chief executive officer of the National Insurance Company should only be conducted in accordance with the law and after considering all aspirants who have applied for the position pursuant to advertisement.

The direction came on a petition of Syed Saulat Hussain Naqvi, who challenged the extension of the present CEO of the NIC. The petitioner’s counsel submitted that the petitioner had applied for the post of NIC CEO pursuant to the advertisement made on behalf of the NIC on May 18, 2024. He submitted that the appointment of the CEO was made by the board of directors, which under the law ought to be comprising seven members out of whom one has to be a female pursuant to the provision 154(2) of the Companies Act, 2017, which is not the case with the present board.

The counsel submitted that board members have to be independent individuals, a requirement which was ignored by appointing two brothers Shahid Sattar and Abid Sattar to the present board.

He submitted that the position of CEO had actually become vacant in the year 2020 when the presently serving CEO was appointed, whose tenure expired in April 2024. He said that there was consideration for extension of the CEO, a move which was resisted by the ministry of law as per its letter of April 1, 2024.

He said the current board was probably set up vide a notification on August 8, 2023 to pave the way for the ill-conceived extension to the current CEO contrary to the public interest as well as ignoring applications of various candidates/applicants for the position of the CEO as their application should have been considered pursuant to advertisement on May 18, in all fairness.

The counsel submitted that first the board has to be appointed after fulfilling all the above requirements including the provision of state-owned enterprises 2023, which are lacking in the current notification and seemingly such internal arrangements are made to facilitate the extension of the current CEO. He said that the extension of the CEO was already penned down by the ministry of the law. He requested the court to direct the respondents to consider the petitioner’s application as well as other aspirants after constituting an independent board as per the law.

The court issued notices to the secretary commerce, security exchange commission of Pakistan and others called their comments. The court in the meantime ordered that the process of finalisation of the NIC CEO should only be made in accordance with the law and after considering all the aspirants who applied for such position pursuant to advertisement on May 18 and that too after the board having been re-notified with regard to fresh members who do not have any conflict amongst themselves and such notification be issued, including one female member, in accordance with the law.