KARACHI, Dec 21: A division bench of the Sindh High Court has ordered issuance of notices to the governor of the State Bank and the chairman of the Privatization Commission on a petition filed by Rauf B. Qadri, former chairman of the Bankers Equity Ltd, challenging the order of Aug 30, 1999.

The above order was given by the then governor of the SBP, whereby the private management of BEL was removed and its management was taken over by the State Bank.

The division bench comprised Justice Zahid Kurban Alavi and Justice Musheer Alam.

The counsel for the petitioner, Rizwan Ahmed Siddiqui, submitted that BEL was a financial institution, established and managed in the public sector. But due to corruption, mismanagement, favouritism, etc, it went into the red. As a consequence, the government decided to sell it off through the Privatization Commission.

The LTV Consortium, headed by the petitioner, submitted the highest bid and took over the management and control of BEL. In this way the organization was privatized.

The counsel of the plaintiff contended that the former governor of the SBP and some of his officials were not favourably inclined to privatize BEL and allegedly, with mala fide intentions, issued the order of Aug 30, 1999 in which he had cited reasons for the removal of the BEL management.

The matter was adjourned to a date in office.