Cabinet body recommends SBP chief

Pakistan extends tenure of its executive director to World Bank by one year

ISLAMABAD:

A cabinet committee on Thursday unanimously recommended the appointment of Jameel Ahmad, a former central banker, as the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) governor for a term of five years, bringing an experienced hand to deal with the challenge of price stability.

The government also extended the term of Pakistan’s incumbent executive director to the World Bank for one year after it withdrew Azam Khan’s nomination for the executive director that the previous government had made by short-circuiting regular processes.

In Azam Khan’s place, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif extended the tenure of Executive Director Naveed Kamran Baloch by one year. Baloch’s original tenure of four years had been curtailed to two years by the previous government to make room for Azam Khan’s appointment.

A special cabinet committee on the appointment of SBP governor met on Thursday and recommended the name of Jameel Ahmad as the next governor, at least three participants of the meeting confirmed to The Express Tribune.

Commerce Minister Naveed Qamar chaired the meeting, which was also attended by federal ministers Sherry Rehman, Syed Murtaza Mehmood, Asad Mehmood, Chaudhry Salik Hussain and Finance Minister Miftah Ismail.

On the basis of the committee’s recommendation, the Cabinet Division on Thursday circulated a summary for the approval of the federal cabinet that is expected to be secured today (Friday), a senior government functionary said.

Jameel Ahmad, 57 years old, is a career central banker having over 31 years of experience. Since December last year, he has been working with the Saudi Central Bank (Sama), advising on a broad range of policy matters in various central banking areas including coordination for major projects of international organisations.

He has supervised three groups of the SBP including Banking Policy & Regulations Group, Banking Supervision Group and Financial Markets & Reserve Management Group. Jameel Ahmad remained deputy governor of the SBP from April 2017 to October 2021.

If approved by the cabinet, Jameel’s biggest challenge will be ensuring price stability that is now the prime objective of the SBP, repair ties between the central bank and the finance ministry and importantly help the country remain economically afloat.

The position of the governor became vacant in May this year and acting Governor Dr Murtaza Syed has handled the central bank’s affairs during the past three and a half months.

Meanwhile, the government notified the president of the World Bank that it was withdrawing the nomination of Azam Khan as the Executive Director/ Alternate Executive Director of the World Bank, according to a notification issued by the Establishment Division on Thursday.

Secretary to PM Dr Tauqir Shah opted not to take the prized foreign posting as the Executive Director of the World Bank despite retiring by the end of this year, setting a high standard for his successors to follow.

Former prime minister Imran Khan had appointed his secretary Azam Khan as the executive director for a term of four years, starting from November 2022, by short-circuiting a process that required interviews and tests of candidates.

Azam Khan’s name had been selected out of a handpicked panel of four bureaucrats.

The prime minister has approved the extension in the term of Naveed Kamran Bloch for one year, till October 31, 2023, according to another notification that the Establishment Division issued on Thursday.

The government also informed Sivan Tamir, acting Vice President of World Bank, and the World Bank president about its decision to extend the tenure, which on merit should otherwise have been till October 2024.

Naveed Kamran Baloch has recently played an effective role in securing additional financing for Pakistan to meet the additional financing gap pointed out by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for fiscal year 2022-23.

The World Bank has started the nomination cycle from August 15 that will continue for one month.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has also undone the wrongdoing of the past and approved new guidelines for postings and appointments abroad. The approval of these guidelines had been pending since 2019, said the sources.

Naveed Kamran Baloch’s successor will be decided by following the new guidelines that will also require the circulation of the post to get the best talent.

The executive director represents Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Tunisia, Morocco, Ghana and Algeria on the World Bank’s board. 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 quotas and voting rights of their constituency.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 19^th, 2022.

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