ISLAMABAD - The federal cabinet will appoint the president of National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) today as the post was lying vacated after the government had suspended former president Saeed Ahmad on the National Accountability Bureau’s request.
Federal cabinet under the chair of Prime Minister Imran Khan would consider the appointment of NBP president in its today’s meeting, said an official of the ministry of finance. He further said that the ministry has moved a summary for the appointment of President NBP after short listing potential candidates. The potential candidates for NBP President included Arif Usmani, Javed Kureshi, Nadeem Lodhi and Wajahat Hussain.
The PTI-led federal government on August 28, 2018 had suspended former president Saeed Ahmad on the NAB’s request. Saeed Ahmad is co-accused of money-laundering with two other persons. In March 2017, the PML-N government appointed Ahmad as president for a period of almost 22 months. The case had been filed in an accountability court. The NAB, in letters written to the finance ministry, had demanded to remove Ahmad from the post, as he could influence the ongoing investigations. The federal government had removed Saeed from the post and appointed NBP senior vice president Tariq Jamali as acting president of the National Bank.
Later, the ministry of finance had initiated the process of appointing new President NBP. According to the officials, as many as 98 applicants had applied for the post. Finance Minister Asad Umar had recently conducted interviews of shortlisted candidates for the post of NBP president. He had short listed three names, which would be presented in Cabinet meeting for appointing the president of the NBP.
According to the agenda, the federal cabinet would also discuss Revision in Government of Pakistan (GOP) policies to enable import of second hand used mobile devices and prevention of smuggling through implementation of Device Identification Regarding Blocking System (DIRBS) by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA). The cabinet would also discuss the Quadrilateral Cooperation and Coordination Mechanism Agreement and Counter Terrorism Information Coordination Central Protocol. Other agenda of the cabinet’s meeting is to appointment of Judicial Officers Banking Court-1 Gujranwala and Banking Court-II Faisalabad.