Former owner of the Lahore Qalandars, Fawad Ahmed Rana, has won a messy arbitration tribunal against his brothers, Atif Rana and Sameen Rana. He is currently serving as the Managing Director of Qatar Lubricants Company (Qalco).
The court ruled that brothers Atif Rana and Sameen Rana, current owners of Lahore Qalandars, must either pay Qalco Rs. 2.96 billion with markup or return Qalco’s 51 percent majority shares in Kausar Rana Resources (Pvt) Limited (KRR).
The ruling came after a legal inquiry was conducted into the transfer of majority shares from Qalco to Atif Rana and Sameen Rana. It was found to be legally void and did not hold a valid authorization.
In 2015, Qalco took over Lahore franchise rights from the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).
The company later transferred those rights to the parent company of the Lahore Qalandars, KRR which happens to be a franchise of the Pakistan Super League (PSL).
The legal dispute revolved around two share transfers in 2018 and 2020. The brothers claimed these transfers were carried out to alleviate geopolitical tensions between UAE and Qatar and to secure Qalco’s participation in the Abu Dhabi T10 league.
The brothers argued that Fawad Rana had agreed to transfer four percent of Qalco’s shares to Atif Rana which would make him the majority shareholder.
Later, Fawad Rana and Qalco alleged that the transfers were fraudulent and false.
The respondents further asserted that certain amounts of payment were made to the KRR for a hunt organized by the brothers for His Highness Shaikh Sultan, the Chairman and CEO of Qalco.
The claimants have disputed the statement on the basis of a lack of supporting evidence or documentation.
Tribunal leans in favour of Fawad Rana
The tribunal produced a judgement, consisting of several crucial deficiencies in the respondents’ case.
The travel records of Fawad Rana proved his absence from Pakistan during the alleged signing of transfer deeds. Retired Justice Baqer conducted a cross-examination which revealed that Sameen Rana acknowledged that the signatures of the attesting witness, Farooq Anwar, the KRR Company Secretary, did not match.
During the arbitration, respondents also failed to produce key witnesses despite their availability and did not produce original transfer papers as well.
Upon further inquiry, it was revealed that the respondents acknowledged that no payment was made for the shares which indicated a discrepancy in the alleged offer letters.
A secret exposed
Another twist took place in the case when a secret sale was exposed where the respondents had sold 30pc of KRR shares to an individual named Mr. Niazi for $5 million.
Allegedly, this sale had been concealed from both Qalco and the tribunal until a cross-examination brought it to light.
As the respondent’s position weakened further, Justice Baqer dismissed their counterclaim of Rs. 50 billion on the grounds of a lack of credible evidence.
The tribunal stated that the transfer documents could not be regarded as having been legally and validly executed and declared them void as a result.
It finally granted the brothers 45 days to pay Rs. 2.296 billion or return the shareholding.
Following the ruling, the tribunal urged the respondents to produce a true and complete account of all KRR profits along with the proceeds from the ‘Niazi deal’ to the Lahore High Court.
It is important to note that the current dispute was submitted to the tribunal by the Supreme Court through a judgement on December 2, 2024.
Under Section 34 of the Arbitration Act, respondents had filed a petition against the dismissal of their application for alteration of KRR’s members’ register.
