ISLAMABAD: A tug of war is going on between coalition partners, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People Party (PPP), over the appointment of president National Bank of Pakistan (NBP).
Sources said that the finance minister and PPP are lobbying for their respective candidates for the position. They informed that PPP is adamant to get its way this time, after losing a similar battle to the finance minister when the latter got his preferred candidate appointed as governor SBP.
They said that PPP has floated the name of acting president Rehmat Ali Hasnie who has been assigned “look after charge” by the Finance Ministry from 12.05.2022 after it emerged that the Cabinet’s approval is mandatory for the acting charge of the slot.
Officials sitting in State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and former directors of policy board NBP have also pitched a few names before Miftah for the appointment. Meanwhile, State Minister for Finance Ayesha Ghous Pasha is also lobbying for her candidate.
Earlier on August 13, the Ministry of Finance had postponed interviews at the last moment due to differences between the finance minister, high ups of PML-N and the ruling PDM alliance.
Initially, the shortlisted names included ten senior bankers including ex-CEO Allied Bank Tahir Qureshi, senior retired Citi Banker Javed Kureshi, present COO of Askari Bank Khurshid Zafar, current Head Wholesale Banking at Silk Bank Hassan Raza who has also worked at senior most positions with UBL and HBL, present Corporate Head at Meezan Bank Mohammad Abdullah and CRO UBL Imran Sarwar amongst a few others.
Sources said that the Finance Ministry will soon shortlist three to four candidates including Rehmat Ali Hasni whose name was not included in the original list and then a panel of officials will conduct their interviews.
Sources said that NBP’s acting president commenced his career at Taurus Securities Limited. He was Group Head (Pair Investment Limited) in January 2010 when he joined NBP as SVP. After joining on January 25, 2010, as SVP, he was promoted to executive vice president on December 18, 2012, with effect from January 25, 2013, for a period of three years.
Hasni was promoted as SEVP on 10-10-2016 allegedly in violation of President Office Circular No 07/12 dated 31-05-2012 as no interviews for elevation were conducted, sources added.
Since 2019 till November 2021, he has been heading the Inclusive Development Group at National Bank of Pakistan, which is a business group focussed on lending to priority sectors in Pakistan (SME, Agriculture, and various government sponsored subsidised lending schemes focussed on promoting entrepreneurship).
NBP has become the largest lender to SMEs and Agriculture and through these efforts has played an instrumental role in promoting financial inclusion and promoting gender equality.
He also has senior management level exposure in various financial institutions ranging from investment banks, full service brokerage houses, asset management companies, and stock exchanges.
It is pertinent to note that FIA is also investigating a case against an NBP official including the acting President in the Hascol scandal.
Another source on condition of anonymity claimed that Omni Group, which is close to the top leadership of PPP, has vast exposure with NBP and has applied for a complete restructuring.
