ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has ordered the immediate removal of National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) President/Chief Executive Officer Arif Usmani and Chairman Board of Directors Zubyr Soomro from their posts.

Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kiyani on Tuesday announced the verdict reserved on June 2 about a petition filed against the appointment of the National Bank president.

IHC heard the petition filed by citizens – Syed Jahangir, Javed Iqbal, Fazal Raheem and Latif Qureshi. The petitioners challenged the notification dated 12 January 2019 regarding the appointment of Usmani as NBP president, terming the appointment not in accordance with the requirements of transparency.

The petitioner argued that Usmani’s name was not included in the State Bank of Pakistan's (SBP) professional bankers' list, yet the appointment was made which should be nullified.

Last month, Usmani’s counsel, Ahmed Bilal Sufi, had pleaded that the NBP had earned good profits under the current president. However, Justice Kiyani remarked that any property tycoon should have been appointed as president if the motive was just to earn a profit. The court remarked that if the degree had no connection with the appointment, then a judge could also be appointed as bank head.

Petitioners’ lawyer Advocate GM Chaudhry argued that there were people who had topped physics, saying they were also entitled to apply for the post the same way.

Counsel of NBP’s board chairman Advocate Faisal Ghani pleaded that these petitions had been filed on the basis of dishonesty as the petitioners were not an affected party.

Another petitioner’s lawyer Iftikhar Hussain Naqvi responded that it was not necessary for the petitioner to be an affected party to file a case.