Seven directors including the vice-chairman of the embattled board of directors of Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited on Saturday warned that many of the directors of the bank would `resign willingly’ if any of them was forced to resign.
IBBL vice-chairman Syed Ahsanul Alam, who has been in conflict with chairman Aarastoo Khan for the last few days, on Saturday sent to the media a press release making the warning with signatures of seven directors including him of the 20-member board.
The release said that a board meeting of IBBL on May 13 expressed concern over the ‘threats’ given to Ahsan and other directors for resigning from the board and took decision to ‘oust’ top officials who are ‘anti-state’.
‘The directors said that if any of the directors was forced to resign under threat, many of the honourable directors would resign willingly from the board,’ it said.
The press release was signed by Ahsan, also an independent director, directors Qazi Shahidul Alam, Abdul Matin and Md Syful Islam and independent directors Md Abdul Mabud, Helal Ahmed Chowdhury and Borhan Unddin Ahmed.
Ahsan sent the press release three days after IBBL chairman Arastoo khan at a press conference alleged that Ahsan made false statements to the media against the bank in last two weeks damaging the bank’s image.
In a Facebook post, Ahsan on May 13 said that some top officials of the bank backed by corrupt government officials were involved in an ‘exclusion-inclusion conspiracy’ in the bank’s board of directors.
‘Due to the conspiracy, it’s only a matter of time before I am forced to resign from the bank’s board,’ he said in the Facebook post.
Arastoo, however, said that Ahsan told media persons, falsely, the list of beneficiaries of the corporate social responsibility programme run by IBBL would be sent to the home ministry for investigation, but the board did not take any such decision.
He said that Ahsan could resign from the bank if he wanted to and there was no pressure from the bank on him to resign.
Ahsan told New Age on Saturday evening that chairman Arastoo Khan was against them and the directors would resign if any director of the bank was forced to resign. ‘He [Arastoo] is the representative of the ‘superpower’,’ said Ahsan.
When contacted, Arastoo told New Age that he had nothing to do if any of the directors resigned. ‘It’s not easy for any independent director to resign or to be ousted,’ he said.
The largest private bank of the country has recently plunged into crisis because of internal conflicts after the changes in its board of directors earlier this year as per a government move to oust from the bank people loyal to Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, many of the top leaders of which have been convicted of war crimes.
On January 5 this year, former IBBL chairman Mustafa Anwar, its vice-chairman M Azizul Huq and managing director Mohammad Abdul Mannan resigned from the board and former Bangladesh Commerce Bank chairman Arastoo Khan was made the new chairman of the bank.
The then Union Bank managing director, Md Abdul Hamid Miah, was made the new managing director of IBBL.
The Islamic Development Bank, a Saudi Arabia-based sponsor of IBBL, then took a decision to sell around 5 per cent of its total shares in IBBL because of the sudden reshuffle. The IDB holds 7.5 per cent of the bank’s shares.
Source: New Age
