Official sources say neither the position was circulated nor the handpicked candidates were interviewed. PHOTO: FILE
The government allegedly circumvented the procedures in the appointment of the prime minister’s principal secretary, Nasir Mahmood Khosa, as executive director ED/AED of the World Bank, The Express Tribune has learnt.
Official sources said that neither the position was circulated nor the handpicked candidates were interviewed.
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.
The post alternates between Pakistan and Algeria. The ED/AED is responsible for protecting the interests of a constituency of seven countries in addition to securing concessionary loans.
Khosa – who is retiring on September 14 – will succeed Raja Azeem-ul Haque, son-in-law of former premier Raja Pervaiz Ashraf. Azeem’s appointment was challenged in the Supreme Court, and fearing an adverse ruling he quit only seven months after taking over.
Khosa belongs to the District Management Group, now known as Pakistan Administrative Services. His appointment as the ED/AED had long been anticipated, official sources said.
Appointment procedure
According to the office memorandum of the Establishment Division, after circulating a vacancy to various departments the Special Selection Board (SSB) of the establishment division shortlists candidates for a decision by the prime minister.
However, sources said the economic affairs division did not circulate the post. A panel of candidates was shortlisted consisting of Nasir Khosa, former secretaries Ghulam Dastgir and Javed Iqbal.
Javed Iqbal told The Express Tribune that he was not interviewed by the SSB, as he did not know about his inclusion in the panel. However, he appreciated Khosa’s administrative skills.
Following the Memorandum
The spokesman for the economic affairs division insisted that they followed the procedures which have been practiced for the last 20 years. The panel was approved by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 25th, 2013.
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The Supreme Coyrt stepped in when the former PM Raja appointed his son in law to this post. Let the Supreme Court step in again and examine why rules were not followed and why only bureaucrats are appointed to such posts and professionals are not considered.
Let the Supreme Court show that it is independent and is not leaning to Nawaz Sharif (as is being accused) and examine this appointment.
@Yousaf Lakhani: Wow... PMLN being a right wing party from Punjab is an angel who can't do any bad, whereas left leaning parties from smaller provinces are devils, who can't do any good. If the former does the same thing as the latter, it automatically becomes a pious act.
Whats new? This is called pre-selection. Nepotism continues. Zindabad.
The PML Government is quite mature and its leadership has been thru hard times .I am sure they will not take a step which is not good for Pakistan .After all they are the leaders of this Country and have to fix things which were un-fixed by the previous regime .
It seems that PML-N is no different than PPP.
Why not set up a transparent recruitment system for all senior appointments. Pakistan comes first,please.