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Mansha stays as Chairman, Manzoor new MCB President

RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: Mian Mohammad Mansha, hitherto holding the twin offices of Chairman and President of Muslim Commercial Bank, would be retaining the chairmanship of the Board of Directors, and Mohammad Aftab Manzoor, Head of the Credit Division and Senior Executive Vice President, has been named President of the bank, with immediate effect.

The announcement by the Board of Directors on Saturday puts at rest the speculation which was rife for past two months after Mansha had told senior MCB staffers at the Bhurban Conference of his decision to give up the role of CEO in the bank.

MCB has emerged as the third largest bank in the country after its privatisation and is regarded to be in extremely strong financial health.

Mian Mansha was the first Chairman of MCB after privatisation with Hussain Lawai as President.

During the second Benazir government, Mansha was hounded out of the country and the chairmanship was passed on to the then Vice Chairman, S. M. Muneer.

Being the single largest shareholder with around 32 percent stake, Mansha became chairman once again and had to take over as president of the bank when Hussain Lawai resigned and was later forced to flee Pakistan.

Being a non-banker, Mansha surprised everyone when he took the institution to new heights and was able to clean up the balance sheet with record settlement of bad and doubtful debts while providing full provisioning for the infected portfolio which is said to be the smallest among the large network banks.

Mansha's decision to cut back on his role as a banker reportedly stems from his desire to give more time to his core businesses i.e. textiles and cement.

While his flagship Nishat Textile Mills and other ancillary units have continued to outperform the rivals, Mansha's attention is now needed to recover the troubled cement units whose expansion had been mistimed with the slow-down of the economy and severe cuts in development projects.

The new President of MCB, Aftab Manzoor has 22 years of experience, most of it with Citi Bank N.A. Pakistan. The positions held by him included Regional Manager (North), Country Head of Financial Institutions, Cash Management and Custodians Service Business. He also conducted credit reviews of Citibank Operations in Turkey, Nigeria, Sudan and Egypt. Manzoor has also attended a number of Credit and Marketing Seminars offered by the Citibank Overseas Training Centres abroad.

Aftab Manzoor, who had done his Master in Business Administration with major in Finance in 1977, joined the Muslim Commercial Bank in 1998 as SEVP/Head of the Credit and Risk Management Division. He is also member of the MCB Managing Committee.