The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed identical pleas against the privatisation of Habib Bank Limited (HBL), declaring the privatisation of the bank in accordance with law and transparent. A three-member Supreme Court bench of Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, Justice Mian Saqib Nisar and Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan dismissed the pleas filed by Dr Akhtar Hassan Khan, former secretary of the Planning Commission, the Watan Party and others, challenging HBL’s privatisation.
The petitioners had made the federal government, the Privatisation Commission and the Agha Khan Fund respondents in the case and had contended that the sale of 51 percent shares of HBL was made for malafide reasons, at a lower price and contrary to the relevant provisions of law. SM Zafar and Barrister Syed Ali Zafar, counsels for the Agha Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED), submitted that the Privatisation Commission had, after full scrutiny, qualified AKFED as the eligible party on account of its banking and related business experience and approved the sale of 51 percent shares of HBL after conducting thorough and proper procedure in which nothing was hidden and laws were followed and applied.