Seven directors of Islami Bank have threatened to resign from their posts if pressure was mounted by the management for the forced resignation of the bank’s vice chairman, Prof Syed Ahsanul Alam. The threat was issued in a statement signed by the seven directors, including Ahsanul. The other signatories were Prof Shahidul Alam, Ahsan Uddin Ahmed, Abdul Mabud, Major General (retd) Abdul Matin, M Saiful Islam, and Helal Ahmed Chowdhury.
Talking to the Independent, Ahsanul said they would have no alternative but to resign one by one if any director was forced to put in his papers. Though only seven directors signed the statement, Ahsanul claimed 12 directors were on the same page on the matter.
On the other hand, Islami Bank chairman Aroosto Khan countered that the allegation made in the statement was baseless and there was no pressure on Ahsanul to resign.
“Ahsanul is telling a lie. Why will I remove him from his position? It is very unfortunate that he does not have minimum ethics,” the chairman told The Independent. “He wants to gain political favour from the Prime Minister,” he added.
Khan confided that Ahsanul had placed some proposals that involved Sheikh Hasina’s name. “If the board members were to take up the proposals, it would have cast a shadow on the PM’s image,” he said.
The chairman further said that last week, Ahsanul had disclosed certain classified information which he was bound to keep confidential in his capacity as the vice chairman of Islami Bank.
Following a meeting of the board of directors, Ahsanul had told some media outlets that a decision was taken to deposit the bank’s funds for zakat, amounting to Tk 450 crore, to the PM’s zakat funds.
Another fund for iftar, Tk 13 crore, would be distributed via the social welfare ministry, the vice chairman told media persons. Additionally, a list of beneficiaries of corporate social responsibility (CSR) would have to be submitted to the home ministry.
The purported decisions were criticised by several quarters. Khan said, “After Ahsanul’s press conference, I received a call from the Prime Minister, who talked to me for 40 minutes. The PM was not happy about the matter. She asked me, ‘What happened to you? I didn’t ask for zakat money from you. Who asked you to give it?’ I assured her that no such decision was taken.”
The chairman added: “Ahsanul does not even know how much money there is in the zakat fund. He does not know which one is the zakat fund and which one is profit money.”
Khan also said one has to follow certain conditions while signing the papers to become a director. According to those conditions, no one can disclose any classified information. “But Ahsanul flouted the conditions. We will take a decision about him in the next meeting of the board of directors,” he added. An amount of Tk 347 crore has been deposited in the zakat fund, of which Tk 173 crore has been distributed. Tk 28 crore has been kept aside for tax.
Khan said, “Ahsanul told the board of directors that he has been asked to resign, and to sign a blank sheet. We protested against that, condemned it, and informed the central bank. He arranged a press conference after going home. That is really unfortunate.”
In a Facebook post on May 11, Ahsanul had alleged that the members of the board of directors were involved in a “plus-minus” conspiracy. “It has become almost impossible for me to run my duties in a situation like this. It is only a matter of time before I were to resign from this post,” Ahsanul’s post added. Ahsanul, who is a professor of Chittagong University, had joined Islami Bank as an independent director on May 6, 2016. He became the vice chairman after the bank’s former chairman, vice chairman and managing director resigned on January 5. He was running the bank in the changed circumstances, which put him at odds with the other directors and authorities.