ISLAMABAD (Reuters) Here are some facts about possible candidates: ISHRAT HUSAIN Ishrat was governor of the State Bank of Pakistan from 1999 to 2005 and is now dean and director of the prominent Institute of Business Administration in Karachi. He also served as a World Bank director for the Central Asian Republics and as chief economist for the banks African region and East Asia and Pacific region. However, an official with knowledge of developments, said on Tuesday that Husain had been approached by the government on the possibility of becoming finance minister but had declined the offer. HAFIZ PASHA Pasha is a prominent economist and a member of the governments economic advisory council. He is now dean of the school of social sciences at Beaconhouse National University in Pakistan. Pasha also served as an assistant secretary general at the United Nations, a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) assistant administrator and a director of the UNDPs regional office for Asia and the Pacific. Pasha served as a deputy chairman of the Planning Commission in the mid-1990s under then prime minister Nawaz Sharif and in 1998 became a finance adviser to Sharif. NASIM BEG Beg is the founder and chief executive of Arif Habib Ltd, a prominent asset management company. A qualified chartered accountant, Beg served as the deputy chief executive of the state-run National Investment Trust, which manages the countrys largest and oldest mutual fund. Beg was briefly the chief executive for NIT. MAKHDOOM SHAHABUDDIN Shahabuddin, a lawyer, is federal minister for planning and development, and is a member of the ruling PPP. He was elected to the National Assembly in 1994 and served as minister of state for finance. In 2008, he again won a National Assembly seat and was appointed federal minister for planning and development. ANY OTHERS NAMES? On Monday, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was caught advertently by media microphones telling Ishaq Dar, a former commerce and finance minister under former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in the 1990s, that Tarin would be leaving. Those comments have raised speculation the prime minister might offer the job to Dar. Dar was briefly finance minister after a 2008 election but left his job when Sharif pulled his party out of the ruling coalition. His chance of becoming finance minister would appear remote as Sharifs party is not in the coalition.