KARACHI, Feb 6: The growing concerns over the health of Managing Director of the Karachi Stock Exchange dissipated on Tuesday, as the bearded M.A. Lodhi was seen going about his work in his office.

“I was only on three days leave (Jan 31, Feb 1 and 2), which I can avail as per the service rules,” said Mr Lodhi, whose absence or as someone termed ‘disappearance’ according to him was a ‘mountain made out of a molehill’. His unavailability perhaps seemed longer as the three days got clubbed together with the Ashura and Kashmir day holiday.

Was he at odds with the board of directors of the KSE? Both the KSE MD and chairman Zafar A. Khan denied that such was the case. The latter also acknowledged that the bourse was operating as usual. But some brokers thought it ominous that the chairman’s office in the administration block was allowed to be re-created by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), withdrawing its earlier orders of dislodgement that were passed three years ago.

A director on the previous board also did not mince words in declaring that members were divided over the role and effectiveness of the KSE MD. One aspect of the sitting MD, nonetheless, is quite visibly dissimilar to his predecessor: If the former was eloquently vocal, Mr Lodhi mostly prefers to work as quietly as a monk.

There is no hint of a direct intervention by the SECP and none should be if both the KSE chairman and the MD express such affection for each other.

But some members thought that SECP should, nonetheless, investigate of what really is going on. They worry that if there is smoke, there ought to be fire. All of it boils down to the fact that the $51.92bn stock market, which is passing through one of its best times, cannot be left to petty disputes, which have the potential of brewing up in a small crisis.