President of the Actuarial Society of India (ASI) for four terms president and long time executive committee member Liyaquat Khan is technically out of the actuarial institute today. Ironically, he has been disqualified to be member of ASI's executive committee, which is the governing body of the ASI, because of a rule he himself had introduced during his presidency.

According to this rule, an executive committee member ceases to hold office automatically if he absents himself for three consecutive governing council meetings and can only be readmitted after making a written application seeking condonation of the absence.

Alternatively, the executive committee can fill the vacancy with a person who may have lost the governing body elections ("second-best loser") with the least margin, or allow the vacancy to stay. The "second-best loser" in the last elections was K P Narashiman, former ASI president and former chairman, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC).

In Khan's case, he hadn't attend the last three meetings of ASI's executive committee. "I have not written to ASI to condone my absence from the meetings. So as per the rule, I am no longer a member of ASI's governing council. But ASI has sent me a letter asking for the reasons for not attending the executive committee meetings."

When asked about the reason for not attending the meetings he says, "I am not happy with the way ASI is carrying on its activities. The institute is not honouring the commitments made to the overseas actuarial bodies during my tenure as president."

According to him, as the president of ASI he had committed to have an ASI examination centre at Lahore, which has not happened. "Similarly the exam applications of 17 Bangladeshi students were rejected on the grounds that they did not send their exam fees. The practice is that the Bangladesh Insurance Academy would send the exam fees later while the student's application would be received and processed by ASI upfront."

In addition, Khan is also upset about the ASI's new rule that restricts a person to be member of two managing committees. As a result he is out of the education board, the editorial board of the institute's magazine and the general insurance board. "I am now the chairperson of the health insurance board and a member of the professional affairs and standards board," he says.

Oddly Khan's latest move comes at a stage when the ASI is in the process of being converted into a statutory institute with the passing of the Actuaries Bill 2006 in Parliament. ASI has constituted a committee to recommend the rules and regulations to be laid down for the efficient functioning of the proposed institute.

Once the committee submits its report the first action is to elect the office bearers for the proposed Institute of Actuaries of India. Khan the immediate past president of ASI was forced to concede the post to Dr R Kannan in the last elections. At that time he had said that he might stage a come back.

And Khan seems to have made the first move aiming at the elections for the proposed statutory institute.