The Kuala Lumpur High Court today postponed to Monday the hearing of Selangor Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim's suit

against Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad (BIMB) for wrongful sale of his shares in Guthrie Berhad.

Judge Rohana Yusuf made the order after allowing the application by Abdul Khalid's counsel, Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, for time to study all the documents handed by the bank last Friday.

Malik said that he had just been appointed to replace counsel M Thomas Philip who had been warded for dengue fever.

The hearing of Abdul Khalid's suit and the counter suit by the bank was supposed to begin today.

Abdul Khalid filed the suit against BIMB on May 18, 2007 claiming that the bank had wrongly disposed of his shares in Guthrie which he acquired through an Al-Bai Bithaman Ajil (BBA) loan facility on April 30, 2001.

He is seeking a declaration that a collateral contract exists between him and the bank relating to the facility.

Abdul Khalid, who was the chief executive officer of Guthrie from 1995 to 2003, is also seeking damages from BIMB.

The bank, in its counter-suit, is seeking the return of RM66.67 million, claiming that Abdul Khalid had breached its contract in the BBA loan facility following his failure to repay the loan.

In August last year Abdul Khalid was ordered by the High Court to pay RM66.67 million in a summary judgment obtained by the bank but the Court of Appeal on March 3 set aside the judgment and ordered a full trial of the issues.

- Bernama