Barrister Kamal Ul Alam, a senior Supreme Court lawyer, has given his consent to a High Court proposal to be the chairman of the proposed board formed to revive People's Leasing and Financial Services Limited (PLFSL), a non-bank financial institution.
The High Court on Monday last decided to revive the People's Leasing and Financial Services Limited instead of winding it up.
The High Court bench of Justice Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar passed the order after holding a hearing on a petition filed by 201 depositors of the PLFSL for revival or restructuring of the institution.
In that verbal order, the court indicated that the chairman of the board of directors may be a retired judge of the Supreme Court or an eminent lawyer. It also observed that a chartered accountant, a lawyer, a high-ranking government official and one of the depositors would be on the board of directors.
Advocate Ahsanul Karim who represented in the hearing on behalf of the 201 depositors said, "Barrister Kamal Ul Alam may be the chairman of the board of directors of the PLFSL. His name is under consideration, if he agrees. Besides, I have not heard anyone else's name."
Barrister Kamal Ul Alam said, "This is a sub-judice matter and nothing can be said unless the release of the court order."
But a source confirmed that the jurist has given his consent to the court proposal to hold the post of chairman of the problematic organisation that went on a winding up process in 2019.
The depositors recently filed the petition through their lawyer, Shamim Ahmed Mehedi, with the High Court seeking its directive to revive or reconstruct the institution.
The petition said in order to promote the interest of the depositors or to ensure the proper management of a financial institution, Bangladesh Bank can alternatively initiate a scheme for reconstruction of a financial institution by merging the same with another financial institution.
It is indisputable that the depositors are the worst victims of the uncertainty looming over the fate of the PLFSL. The delay in reaching an arrangement regarding the PLFSL is accumulating further cumbersome burden upon the depositors and adding much to their already agonizing ordeal.
The finance ministry on June 26 in 2019 allowed the BB to go for liquidation of the PLFSL due to the entity's failure in repaying depositors' money following massive irregularities in loan disbursement.
Following a court instruction, the BB appointed its Deputy General Manager Md Asaduzzaman Khan as PLFSL's liquidator and Acnabin Chartered Accountants as special auditor as part of the liquidation.
After the government's approval on the liquidation, the PLFSL's depositors urged the government high-ups including the Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal and BB Governor Fazle Kabir to clear their dues by December 2019.
Although both of them assured the depositors of the repayment, none of the depositors is yet to get back their money.
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