Removal of MD: heated debate in KSE board meeting

Posted on 02.16.07 by StockPK Team @ 12:32 pm    

KSE Board meeting held on Thursday ended in chaos, source told The News. Board of Directors (SECP nominated and KSE elected) failed to reach any consensus regarding the removal of incumbent KSE-MD, M A Lodhi, which was the only agenda of the meeting.

Meeting lasted for six hours commencing at 2:30 pm and culminating at around 08:30 pm. On can measure the intensity of the issue with the time span that meeting consumed, but ended up with zero sum game.

Zafar A Khan, Chairman-KSE, preferred not to talk on the issue and switched off his mobile without responding to the queries about the outcome of the meeting. But, before switching off his mobile he completed the sentence “you better talk to KSE-Secretary.”

However, no official statement regarding the end result of the meeting was available with media. Few members of the board even boycotted the meeting and staged walk out at a point when arguments were finished, but emotions were high on two sides of the divided board (for and against the removal of MD), source at KSE divulged.

After the formal ending of the meeting majority of SECP nominated directors left KSE immediately, while two to three member-directors rejoined sitting MD in his office, source said. Rumours regarding removal of MA Lodhi were around since Moharram holidays in late January.

Lodhi was appointed in the capacity of MD-KSE on January 01, 2006 and his official tenure would automatically terminate in December 2008, as MD-KSE is appointed for a period of three years.

MD’s removal case was built up mainly by the nominated directors. The SECP cannot by-pass the KSE board in removal of the MD. And the board can dismiss the bourse’s chief executive (MD) through a majority vote of three-fourths of the directors present at the meeting.

Source maintained that on Friday (today) morning, all the nine board of directors, besides MD, could take a clear position on the issue and might issue an official statement to the media to clear the smoke.

Source: The News