Staff Reporter :
People’s Leasing and Financial Services Limited (PLFSL), a non-bank financial institution, gets a new Board of Directors which will operate the organization from now instead of the provisional liquidator.
The High Court has appointed Barrister Kamal Ul Alam, a senior Supreme Court lawyer, Chairman of the board.
The court appointed also Anwarul Islam Sikder, former Secretary to the government, Hasan Shaheed Ferdous, a retired senior district and sessions judge, Abdul Halim Chowdhury, former Managing Director of the Pubali Bank Ltd, Brigadier General (retired) Kazi Taufiqul Islam, Noor-E Khoda Abdul Mobin, an FCA, as the member of the board.
The list also included the names of Mowla Mohammad, an FCA, Dr Nashid Kamal, a representative of the depositors, Dr Nurul Kabir, Chairman of the Finance department of the North South University, and Mohammad Jalal Uddin, former Managing Director of Ansar VDP Unnayan Bank.
The High Court bench of Justice Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar formed the body after holding hearing on a petition filed by 201 depositors of the PLFSL to revive or for reconstruction of the institution.
The depositors in June this year filed the petition through their lawyer, Shamim Ahmed Mehedi, with the High Court seeking its directive to revive or for reconstruction of the institution.
The court passed the decision to revive the financial organization on June 28 this year and on that day the court also gave an outline over the proposed board of directors that would conduct the functions of the PLFSL. But the full written text of the order released on July 12 names the full board of directors.
The court asked the chairman of the board to call, hold and conduct the first meeting of the board of directors as per the convenience of all the members of the board and, also, of the defunct provisional liquidator.
The chairman is directed to put his best effort to know the nitty-gritty of the PLFSL by collecting the first Articles of Association and Memorandum of Association, all the audit reports from its inception till date.
The court has directed the Governor of Bangladesh Bank to do the needful to give effect to the board of directors of the PLFSL formed by this Order. He shall keep the provisional liquidator (defunct) attached with the board of directors of the PLFSL until appointment of the MD for the PLFSL.
The court observed that in the case in hand, the interests of all the stakeholders, namely, shareholders, investors, creditors and employees shall be best served if the businesses of the company are commercially operated in full swing.
In the order, the court said it had held an online meeting with Bangladesh Bank (BB) governor, security and exchange commission (SEC) chairman and anti-corruption commission (ACC) chairman where the governor of Bangladesh Bank requested the court to pass necessary appropriate orders and directions for the wellbeing of the PLFSL.
Lawyer Ahsanul Karim appeared in the hearing on behalf of the depositors, while Barrister Tanjib ul Alam appeared for Bangladesh Bank and Barrister Mejbahur Rahman represented the provisional liquidator of the PLFSL.
The same High Court bench on July 14 in 2019 admitted a prayer of the Bangladesh Bank to go for liquidation of the PLFSL due to the entity’s failure in repaying depositors’ money following massive irregularities in loan disbursement.
Following the court instruction, the BB appointed its Deputy General Manager Md Asaduzzaman Khan as PLFSL’s liquidator and Acnabin Chartered Accountants farm as special auditor as part of the liquidation.
In the meantime the court has issued a series of orders and directions over the financial institution’s activities and imposed travel ban upon most of the borrowers of the company. Complying with the court orders some of the borrowers have already deposited some money in the account of the company.
