The government has intervened in the leadership dispute at the Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT & ITES (P@SHA), restoring Chairman Sajjad Mustafa Syed after quashing a recent no-confidence vote against him.

The Directorate General of Trade Organisations (DGTO) on August 28 declared the August 22 Vote of No Confidence against Syed null and void and cancelled the August 24 notification removing him as chairman.

The regulator said P@SHA’s 12-member Central Executive Committee needed at least nine votes to remove the chairman under Section 190(1) of the Companies Act, 2017. The motion received only eight votes.

The DGTO also ruled that Senior Vice Chairman Muhammad Umair Nizam’s vote was invalid because he stood to assume the chairmanship following Syed’s removal. This reduced the valid votes supporting the motion to seven.

The regulator further found that the no-confidence motion was introduced unexpectedly during an emergency meeting called on a separate agenda, without the required advance notice.

As a result, the DGTO restored Syed as P@SHA chairman for the remainder of his 2024-26 term and ordered Nizam to stop exercising the powers of acting chairman.

The regulator, however, did not prevent P@SHA’s CEC from seeking Syed’s removal again.

It said any fresh no-confidence motion must follow due process, including at least seven clear days’ notice and approval from at least nine of the 12 CEC members.

The DGTO also directed P@SHA’s leadership to comply with a previously ordered 30-day amicable dispute resolution process.