August 03, 2007	Friday	Rajab 18, 1428

LAHORE, Aug 2: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) is trying hard to force Lahore Stock Exchange (LSE) chairman Hamaish Khan to step down from his office allegedly to pave the way for the election of a close friend of the prime minister in his place.

The elected LSE directors told Dawn on Thursday that Hamaish, who is also president of the Bank of Punjab (BoP), was elected by the LSE board of directors against the wish of SECP Chairman Razi-ur-Rehman.

“The SECP chairman wants Ibrar Mumtaz, one of the four outside directors and a very close friend of the prime minister, to be elected as chairman of the LSE ever since the constitution of the present board. He has been telling us since January that he is under immense pressure from the prime minister to somehow get his friend elected as chairman,” a director said on condition of anonymity.

“In order to force Hamaish to resign his office and make the LSE to elect Ibrar in his place, the SECP has also rejected the selection of new managing director of the bourse and asked the board to re-launch the entire process once more,” the director said.

When contacted on phone, Razi-ur-Rehman refused to confirm or deny the allegations and advised this reporter to contact another senior SECP official Rashid Malik who could not be contacted till the filing of this report despite attempts to reach him.

“I know that I’m chairman of the SECP and I know what my job is. Rashid Malik is handling the matter, talk to him,” Razi said before hanging up.

Hamaish and Ibrar, a partner in a pharmaceutical company, are two of the four outside directors nominated by the SECP on the LSE board. The other two are businessmen Arif Saeed and Sikandar Mustafa Khan.

It was in January this year when the five elected directors of the bourse approached Hamaish, who is credited to have turned around the loss-making BoP, with an offer to become chairman of the board. Hamaish apprised the SECP chairman about the offer and asked him if he could accept it. He gave his consent to the offer only after Razi-ur-Rehman gave him the “green signal”.

But Razi-ur-Rehman called him up only a few days later and asked him to refuse the offer. He was also asked to make efforts along with Sikandar to get Ibrar elected as chairman.

Hamaish was nevertheless elected as chairman by the elected directors in the first board meeting held in the middle of January though he refused to accept the office. “When Hamaish refused to accept the job, Sikandar rose to propose the name of Ibrar, but could not find anyone to second his proposal. Even Arif, the fourth outside director, did not second the proposal,” the LSE director reminisced.

In the meanwhile, the SECP chairman again called up Hamaish and asked him to use his clout on the elected directors for the election of Ibrar in the next meeting held on February 2.

Hamaish was again elected as chairman in the second board meeting and Sikandar and Ibrar separated themselves from the board, saying they had never given their consent to the SECP for their nomination to the board. Arif also quit the board, though he did not object to the majority decision.

The LSE wrote six letters to the SECP, requesting it to give their replacements to complete the board. But the SECP chose not to respond.