KARACHI: Recent times have seen the KSE primarily focused on managerial reshuffling, as members hit by losses are demanding watershed changes.
According to market sources, an unprecedented hustle against the appointment of a non-member chairman is dominating the affairs and minds at the Karachi bourse.
Sources told Pakistan Today that some 200 card holders at KSE were agitated with the old tradition of what they consider appointing an outsider like Zubair Soomro as the chairman and demanded that a chief be appointed from among the members.
Market analysts believe that this hustle is not a good omen for a downing stocks market.
“Such issues are arising out of the frustration, as members are mentally preoccupied due to permanent and huge losses”, analysts said
The KSE board members had a meeting on Tuesday to discuss this issue, which had taken shape of a controversy and extended the Annual General Meeting till November. The meeting was earlier scheduled at the end of this month.
Members are all set to say goodbye to the ‘apparently’ popular KSE MD, Adnan Afridi, as the latter is alleged to have cost the ailing bourse heavily throughout his reign by his self-entitled incentives.
“Afridi’s contract would expire on October 31 and members have no intention to renew the contract, as the outgoing chairman had performed poorly during his tenure,” they added.
Sources claimed that some members were also demanding the SECP to send Afridi and his ‘heavily-paid’ team packing to shed some load from the KSE.
Moin Fuda, Haroon Askari and Yaqoob Memon are potential candidates to replace Afridi. However, sources consider the MBA degree holder, Fuda, as favorite to notch the top slot at the KSE.
“He (Fuda) fulfils SECP criteria of holding an MBA degree for the top managerial post,” they said, adding, other two hopefuls, Askari and Memon, hold similar graduation degrees. However, sources believed that Fuda’s affiliation with bigwigs like Pak-American Investment Board was likely to give him an edge over his competitors.
If the above speculations come true, this would be the second time for Fuda to take the helm of Karachi Stocks after his previous tenure of three years in 2005.
