Khan & Associates Secures a Critical Ruling from a Division Bench of the Sindh High Court on Arbitration and Related Issues for Foreign Investors

Khan & Associates’ (“K&A”) partner Mansoor Hassan Khan, assisted by associate Barrister Noman Ahmad Langrial, secured another critical ruling on arbitration and related issues for a group of foreign investors in their long-running contractual dispute with a local partner. The client is a global leader in agricultural trade with investments across 40 markets and a focus on sustainable food and feed production.

On 22 January 2025, a Division Bench of the Sindh High Court dismissed an appeal against an order of the Single Bench, confirming our client’s entitlement to a stay of court proceedings in view of an arbitration agreement between the parties.

The appeal engaged complex points of law, including the survival of an arbitration clause after termination of the underlying contract, the extension of an arbitration clause to an interdependent agreement, and the scope and validity of taking a step in the proceedings to exclude the right to seek arbitration. K&A’s team drew the court’s attention to the doctrine of severability, the centre-of-gravity test for interdependent contracts, and the requirement of an unequivocal intention to submit to a court’s jurisdiction, successfully refuting each ground of appeal. Our side also persuaded the court to set aside a reservation in the Single Bench’s order concerning an agent’s authority to sign pleadings on behalf of a foreign company.

K&A’s robust representation of the client throughout the dispute, spanning over a decade, has helped secure two seminal rulings upholding the right to arbitration.