BoK Board set to decide future of five sacked officers today

PESHAWAR: The Board of Directors, Bank of Khyber (BoK), is set to take up the future of the five terminated officers today at its 147th meeting is being held in Islamabad.

The Board meeting will be chaired by Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) Planning and Development (P&D) Shehzad Khan Bangash, while Secretary Finance Shakeel Qadir and other members including Rashid Khan, a close associate of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan, are also expected to attend.

The meeting would take up a heavy agenda which includes the matter of the five sacked officers, who were apparently made scapegoats in a row between the former managing director (MD) of the bank Shamsul Qayyum and incumbent Finance Minister Muzaffar Said in April 2015.

The minister and ex-MD remained at loggerheads for quite some time, leading at times to allegations and counter allegations against each other for wrongdoing in the bank affairs.

The bank management in the meanwhile terminated the services of five officers and office-bearers of the Officers Association of the BoK on April 15 for alleged “subversive activities”.

The dismissed officers included Haider Ali, Officers Association president (officer grade-1), Farmanullah Khan, general secretary and Assistant Vice President (AVP), Haroon Minhaj, AVP, Amanullah, joint secretary, and Ayaz Ahmad, Vice President.

They appealed for review of the decision regarding their expulsion, but it was rejected after personal hearing by the Human Resource Committee of the BoD.

The Board decision had come at a time when the cabinet committee formed to review the sacking of the employees submitted its report and called for their reinstatement. The cabinet body’s report wasn’t implemented.

The terminated officers moved the Peshawar High Court (PHC) for relief against the decisions of the bank management and its BoD.

The issue between the ex-MD and finance minister ended with the completion of the contract tenure of the MD on September 30, 2017.

However, the case of the sacked officers remained unresolved and is still pending before a bench of the PHC.

To decide the matter, the Finance Department has sought the inclusion of the matter in today’s board meeting.

On December 11, Budget Officer (Funds/Loans) Hammad Raza wrote (letter’s copy available with The News) to the MD BoK that the competent authority (secretary finance) desired that the case of the terminated employees should be placed on the agenda of the Board meeting.

The Human Resource Committee of the Board, which is now headed by Rashid Khan, will take up the matter today.

The sources privy to the bank affairs told The News that after weighing the legal and procedural aspects of the matter, particularly in the light of its being sub-judice, the Human Resource committee may devise a mechanism to resolve the issue.