PHDL Seeks Fresh Court Extension as Liquidation Faces Legal Roadblocks

KARACHI: Pakistan Hotels Developers Limited (PHDL) is approaching the Sindh High Court for supervision over its voluntary liquidation process which failed to complete within the given extended deadline. The liquidators of PHDL filed an application, JCM No. 38 of 2026, under Sections 381 and 386 of the Companies Act, 2017, in the Sindh High Court on June 27.

PHDL's liquidators had already sought one extension. The initial one-year winding-up period expired in December 2025, prompting PHDL's liquidators to seek additional time by filing an application under Section 372 of the Companies Act, 2017. The Sindh High Court granted the liquidators 180 days, thus providing a new deadline till June 29, 2026.

According to the company, the ending litigation and unresolved recovery claims prevented the liquidators from closing the process within the extended window, despite conducting the proceedings in line with the law. The new application asks the court to take direct supervisory control of the remaining steps.

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The liquidation committee of PHDL, which includes five members, namely, Mohsin Ferozuddin, Masroor F. Baweja, Muzaffar Baweja, Zaheer Baweja and Zubairuddin Baweja, has been working without any pay since the shareholders decided on the voluntary liquidation of the company at an Extraordinary General Meeting held on December 31, 2024.

The company, originally named Taj Mahal Hotels Limited, had come into existence in 1979 and was converted into a public limited company in 1981. The company had developed its business around Regent Plaza Hotel and Convention Centre on Shahra-e-Faisal, which it had sold to Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) in 2023, before the resolution of 2.

PSX placed PHDL in its Non-Compliant (Winding-Up) Segment on January 1, 2025, and suspended trading in the stock under Clause 5.11.2(d) of PSX Regulations. The liquidators have made one partial distribution since then, paying Rs50 per share to shareholders and contributories in March 2026, with the share transfer books closed from March 25 to 31 for that purpose.

The Sindh High Court has not yet ruled on the June 27 application. PHDL shareholders now wait to learn whether the court will assume direct supervision of a liquidation that has already run eighteen months past its original deadline.