Bangladesh Bank has refused to approve the reappointment of Mirza Abbas Uddin Ahmed, popularly known as Mirza Abbas, as a director of Dhaka Bank for a series of criminal cases pending against him, a central bank official said yesterday.

Abbas, a standing committee member of the Khaleda Zia-led Bangladesh Nationalist Party and a former minister, is facing 38 cases, according to a home ministry document.

“He cannot attend the bank's board meetings and Bangladesh Bank believes the depositors' money is not well protected under him,” said M Mahfuzur Rahman, executive director and spokesman for the BB.

A person will be disqualified from a bank's directorship if charged with criminal activity and the court makes any adverse observation or issues an arrest warrant or conviction on criminal charges, according to the Banking Companies Act.

Abbas has remained absent in 11 of the 12 meetings of the board of directors since February 10 citing personal reasons.

The decision was taken in consultation with the BB's legal division, said a top official of the central bank.

One of the founding members of Dhaka Bank, Abbas was appointed as an alternate director in 1995 and a full-fledged one in 2012.

An alternate director is a person who is appointed to attend a board meeting on behalf of a director of a company where the principal director is otherwise unable to attend.

On completion of his three-year tenure, the Dhaka Bank board decided to reappoint Abbas to the same post and accordingly sent a recommendation to the central bank on May 21.

Reshadur Rahman, chairman of Dhaka Bank, said he is yet to know the outcome of the issue.

Abbas was the mayor of the Dhaka City Corporation in the early 1990s and was appointed the minister for housing and public works when the BNP came to power for the second term in 2001.

He also contested for the mayoral post in the Dhaka South City Corporation elections held this year, but lost to the ruling party candidate.

His son Mirza Yasser Abbas remains a director of the bank.

The Daily Star attempted to contact Abbas but he remained unavailable.