Islami Bank Vice-Chairman Ahsanul Alam Parvez 'threatened, asked to step down'

Syed Ahsanul Alam Parvez, Vice-Chairman of Islami Bank Bangladesh, says he has been threatened with firearms and asked to step down from the bank's Board of Directors.

Abdur Rahim Badalbdnews24.com
Published : 11 May 2017, 03:01 PM
Updated : 11 May 2017, 05:53 PM

After writing a Facebook post on the threat on Thursday, he told bdnews24.com later in the day: "I have been asked to step down within 5pm today."

bdnews24.com tried to reach the bank’s Chairman Arastoo Khan for comments, but he was unavailable on his mobile phone.

Islami Bank, accused of having links with Jamaat-e-Islami leaders, went through a major shake-up in its top brass in January.

As part of the executive committee, Parvez was vocal in meetings over policy decisions and made efforts to make the country’s largest and most-profitable bank more inclusive.

He was a key man in running the bank after joining in from Chittagong University where he was a senior professor of marketing. He became chairman of the executive committee after he joined the bank as an independent director.

Former secretary Arastoo was made chairman of the bank, while Parvez was reassigned as its vice-chairman, after the bank ousted the old guard and recast the board.

Parvez now says: "Islami Bank has returned to the hands of anti-liberation forces."

He told bdnews24.com that he had sought Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's intervention to 'save' the bank from the anti-Bangladesh forces.

"I will step down if the prime minister takes no steps, but not before that.”

In the Facebook post, Parvez said May 6 was the first anniversary of him becoming an independent director for the bank.

Parvez went on to say the bank gave away money deposited by more than 12 million people to one million recipients.

"We started monitoring whether the money was used to fund militancy or anti-government political forces,” he said.

Parvez wrote that the new leadership recommended that the bank must lend money to 500,000 small and medium entrepreneurs from all religions in line with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Vision 2021.    

Then a ‘conspiracy’ started in the bank’s board of directors, he alleged.

He also alleged that some top officials of the bank backed by corrupt government officials were involved in the conspiracy.

"The plot is so complex that it is very much necessary for the government to launch an immediate crackdown with the help of detectives.”