International financial institutions: Bureaucrats lobby for top three lucrative positions

Posts of executive director vacant at IMF, ADB and the World Bank

ISLAMABAD: Amid concerns of possible procedural violations in filling these posts, politically well-connected top bureaucrats have begun lobbying for much sought-after positions in international financial institutions that are vacant at a crucial time.

The post of executive director to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is vacant for the past many months and the position of Executive Director to the World Bank will be vacant by the end of next week. Both positions are based in Washington and some bureaucrats who want to stay away after remaining at the helm of the affairs are trying to secure one of these two positions, said the sources.



Similarly, the post of Executive Director to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which is based in Manila, will be vacant by January next year. Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had appointed his Cabinet Secretary Sami Saeed as Executive Director of the ADB in Manila. Sharif had filled these posts after coming into power four years ago. The procedural formalities for filling these posts have to be completed by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar.

Shahid Mehmood, the incumbent secretary finance, was Pakistan’s Executive Director to the IMF. He returned to Pakistan a few months ago and the post still remains vacant.

These vacancies are opening up at a time when there is a dire need to advance the country’s economic interests among members of the World Bank, IMF and the ADB. However, sources said chances exist that the government will try to accommodate some bureaucrats who do not want to stay in the country after change of the PML-N government.

Nasir Khosa, Pakistan’s current Executive Director to the World Bank, is going to complete his four-year term by mid of this month. Khosa is the brother of Asif Khosa, the senior most Judge of Supreme Court of Pakistan. The sources said that Khosa has already asked the federal government to send a replacement after the government did not show any interest to give him an extension.

Before his appointment as executive director to the World Bank, Khosa was principal secretary to the then prime minister. There is a possibility that the next executive director in the World Bank could be Khosa’s successor in the Prime Minister’s Office.

There is likelihood that a high powered board meeting, to be headed by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, will be held next week in which cases for promotions of bureaucrats from grade 21 to grade 22 will be discussed. One of the contenders for the World Bank position is also hopeful for getting grade 22 after he completed his two-year mandatory period in grade-21 in June this year. His promotion to the highest grade could be an indication for his appointment as executive director to the World Bank, said the sources.

The government had allegedly circumvented the procedures in the appointment of Nasir Mahmood Khosa, as Executive Director of the World Bank. At that time, neither the position was circulated nor were the handpicked candidates interviewed.



The federal government has not yet initiated the process to fill these three posts and according to the sources the usual channel of filling these posts may not be followed again.

In order to maintain secrecy, Dar had obtained exemptions from former PM Sharif, the sources said. The possibility was that only finance minister would hold the interviews from the candidates, which will not be selected by following the set procedures.

Appointment procedure

According to the April 2000 Office Memorandum of the Establishment Division, any vacancy for international organisations, foreign governments and UN agencies has to be widely circulated to all ministries, divisions and provincial governments.

After circulating a vacancy to various departments, the Special Selection Board (SSB) of the Establishment Division is supposed to shortlist candidates for a decision by the prime minister.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7^th, 2017.

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