PESHAWAR, April 15: The removal of the provincial public sector Bank of Khyber’s managing director (MD) on April 5 has exposed differences between the major component parties of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal’s coalition government in the province, according to investigations carried out by Dawn.

Senior government functionaries said that the provincial finance minister Siraj-ul-Haq, representing Jamaat-i-Islami in the provincial government, acted unilaterally to terminate the services  of BoK’s top man without  fulfilling  procedural requirements.

As per the NWFP government’s rules of business, chief minister happens to be the competent authority to appoint or remove the head of the provincial public sector entity. However, in this particular case he was not consulted prior to removing Mr Sajid Ali Abbasi from the office of MD, BoK.

“Chief minister was simply bypassed by the finance minister who, apparently, acted unilaterally,” said an official source.

The laid down procedure required the provincial finance ministry to move a summary to the chief minister to ascertain chief minister’s approval for terminating the services of BoK’s MD. However, in this particular case no such summary was moved.

Reasons cited for the removal of Mr Sajid Ali Abbasi included his failure to introduce Islamic banking within the ambit of BoK at a fast track.

Official sources said that his removal was discussed and effected in a meeting held at the office of secretary finance department, on April 5, and the notification was issued late in the evening on the same day when the chief minister Akram Khan Durrani and provincial chief secretary Shakeel Durrani were away from Peshawar.

Sources said that the manner in which the matter was pursued by the finance minister exposed the gulf between the chief minister Akram Khan Durrani of JUI(F) and finance minister Siraj-ul-Haq of JI after the former had restored the services of Mr Sajid Ali Abbasi as MD, BoK, just three months back.