The government has selected a panel for appointment of Pakistan’s Executive Director to the World Bank in Washington, which includes the name of three powerful federal secretaries including Azam Khan, secretary to the prime minister.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs has moved a summary to Prime Minister Imran Khan, seeking relaxation in rules to appoint a new executive director of the World Bank out of the four handpicked names, sources told The Express Tribune.
The post of Executive Director of the World Bank is considered prestigious and prized and people who are considered close to the prime minister have, in the past, hectically lobbied to win it.
The sources said that economic affairs ministry has proposed a four-year term for the new executive director.
The government has selected the names of Secretary to Prime Minister Azam Khan, Finance Secretary Naveed Kamran Baloch, Establishment Division Secretary Dr Ijaz Munir, and former secretary finance and governor central bank Tariq Bajwa.
The name of Azam Khan is at the top of the panel and Tariq Bajwa at the bottom, according to the sources.
Out of the four selected names, two do not have background in issues that they will have to deal with in Washington DC as executive director. Their names have been included due to their proximity to PM’s Office, said the sources.
The economic affairs ministry has also sent a separate summary to the PM’s Office, seeking to notify criteria for selection of candidates for foreign postings. But this proposed criteria will not be applicable for the under consideration summary, as two out of the four individuals would immediately be disqualified. The proposed criteria include educational qualification, relevant experience, circulation of post and importantly a short-listing committee to be headed by the economic affairs minister.
The sources said that in its summary, the economic affairs ministry has requested to relax the 2016 policy and the rules that make it binding to circulate the post among the ministries and departments. The 2016 policy also carries condition of written test for the candidates.
The sources said that the economic affairs minister has selected four names without circulating the summary among the government ministries and departments.
The Express Tribune made repeated attempts to get the version of Minister of Economic Affairs Khusro Bakhtiar. Instead of routing the summary through Establishment Division, the ministry sent the summary directly to the PM’s Office, said the sources.
Bakhtiar neither responded to calls nor returned the text message. The economic affairs ministry also did not comment for this article but senior ministry officials confirmed to The Express Tribune that a summary has been moved for the approval of PM Imran.
Former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had appointed Shahid Ashraf Tarar as Pakistan’s executive director at the World Bank in 2016 for a period of three years. His term is going to expire in October this year.
Due to continued violation of a 2000 office memorandum of the Establishment Division, the then secretary to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, Fawad Hasan Fawad, had prepared balanced and objective policy guidelines for all appointments and postings in Pakistan’s missions abroad and on Pakistan’s seats in multilateral, bilateral and regional organisations, fora and bodies.
Subsequently, the Establishment Division notified the policy in 2016. Instead of following this policy the government has sought PM’s approval to relax the conditions of circulating the post and conducting tests of the selected.
The rule 4 (b) and (c) of the Civil Servants (Service in International Organizations) Rule, 2016 state that “all Pakistan specific foreign posts that are vacant and available or are likely to become vacant, shall be circulated amongst all eligible officers of the identified services, cadres and occupational groups, clearly specifying eligibility criteria in terms of educational qualifications, experience, age, grade and so forth, and there shall be a precondition of passing a written qualifying test.
Provided that an officer nominated against a post of sensitive or strategic importance as set out in the schedule shall be selected in a transparent manner to be determined by the competent authority, according to the rules. The World Bank has been placed among the sensitive and strategic organisation.
The executive director, against a lucrative annual salary, represents seven nations - Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Tunisia, Morocco, Ghana and Algeria - on the World Bank’s board. The posts of executive director and alternate executive director rotate between Pakistan and Algeria after every two years.
The executive director is hired to defend development projects of the seven countries while providing input on their macroeconomic reports, giving opinions on global economic issues and defending the quotas and voting rights of their constituency.
Due to selection of wrong candidates for the post of IMF senior advisor in 2018, the IMF had rejected the name.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 9th, 2020.
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