KARACHI, June 19: The Karachi Stock Exchange is feverishly in search of a person with feet that fits the shoes of managing director.

The post lies vacant following the resignation of Mr M. A. Lodhi, on May 4 this year — nearly 11 months before the end of his three-year contract that was to expire in March 2008.

Mr Yacoob Memon currently holds the post as he is apt to do in times of management distress.

“We are looking for a young, suitably qualified person, since challenges ahead are enormous,” says Mr Tariq Kirmani, a former head of PIA and a sitting non-member director on the board of directors of KSE, who has been assigned the responsibility as head of human resource committee.

He said candidates had not been short-listed, but several names were under consideration.

In order to attract the right candidate, the market sources said the board had decided to more than double the remuneration that was paid to previous MDs.

The KSE, forever accused by its employees as being stingy, was now prepared to part with Rs1 to Rs1.5 million a month as remuneration to the new MD.

Mr Kirmani would not confirm the sum, but said it would be ‘market based’.

The incumbent would be the fifth managing director of the bourse, following the ‘capital market reforms’ that first introduced Shahid Ghaffar, who held the office of the MD for two years between 1989-2000. He was followed by Noman Ahmed; Moin Fudda and M. A. Lodhi.

Among them, only Moin Fudda managed to complete his three- year tenure; others could not stand the heat of Pakistan’s biggest financial market and conflicting interests of its participants.

Credible reports suggested that Moin Fudda was also approached by at least one member director and a non-member director.

While the other three MDs had left quietly, M. A. Lodhi signed his ‘early retirement’ papers only after a board room brawl, that earned him a fat farewell package.

A few professional persons are understood to have declined the offer of the vacant position. And understandably so. From a couple of thousand billions rupees, the KSE has turned into market with capitalisation of around Rs1 trillion. The KSE MD has to tread a difficult path, maintaining a balance in relationship among the market participants and more importantly establish co-ordination between the stock brokers and the apex regulator, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP).

The reforms, proposed to be carried out later this year, including demutualisation of the exchange, would put MD under enormous pressure. And last of all, the stock market has shown a phenomenal rise of 35 per cent in six months this year, almost breaching past the 13,500 points mark on the KSE-100 index.

Sages suggest that ‘whatever goes up must come down’. So when the tables finally turn, it would be a tough job to console those caught under them. Clearly stocks is a game of high finance, not quite manageable by the fickle hearted.