Dr Hafeez hindered appointments to SBP’s central board?

After years long delay the federal government has finally completed the quorum on the Central Board of Directors of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) by appointing two more non-executive directors on the board Monday.
The appointment of Muhammad Hidayatullah and Zafar Masud as independent directors on the SBP’s board has been notified by the Ministry of Finance through the central bank for a three-year period, taking effect immediately. Even Monday’s appointments took the federal government over a week more than what newly-appointed Federal Finance Minister Salim H. Mandviwala had told Pakistan Today last month.
“Next week” was the timeframe the finance minister had given to this reporter for the appointment of the remaining two directors to the board which had been governing the State Bank with an incomplete quorum for years.
The finance minister, however, could be able to appoint Hidayatullah and Masud on Monday only. With the two new inductions the quorum at the SBP’s central board stands completed.
“With these appointments, the SBP Central Board composition consisting of eight independent directors, the federal finance secretary and Governor SBP has been completed,” reported the SBP.
The 10-member SBP Board is comprised of Governor SBP Yaseen Anwar (Chairman of the Board), Acting Federal Finance Secretary (ex-officio member) Abdul Khaliq and members Mirza Qamar Beg, Mehmood Mandviwalla, Shahid Ahmed Khan, M. Nawaz Tiwana, Iskander Mohammed Khan, Khawaja Iqbal Hasan, Muhammad Hidayatullah and Zafar Masud. When was approached to comment on why his predecessors had taken years to appoint theses directors, Federal Finance Minister Salim H. Mandviwala had declined outright to comment.
“I don’t want to say anything about the past,” the finance minister said.
The sources privy to the SBP’s central board, however, said former Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh was a major stumbling block in making full appointments to the SBP Board. Dr Shaikh, the sources said, had never been supportive to inductions in such a significant institution (State Bank) on political basis.
“When I was on the SBP Board we have time and gain been stressing the need for appointing more directors but they never did that,” said Asad Umer, former director at the SBP’s central board who had resigned from his post last year in May after joining Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI). Umer also had what he called it a “theory” in mind about the rationale behind the years long delay for not filling such an important slots. “The new inductions, however, do not seem to substantiate my theory,” he said.
The only appointment that could be questioned, the PTI central leader said, was that of Mehmood Mandviwalla, the close relative (a cousin perhaps) of Finance Minister Mandviwala. “But I must say he (Mehmood) is a talented man on the law side,” Umer acknowledged. Asked if the former finance minister really could not see in his time some talented men to be appointed to the SBP board, Umer said may be. “The answer to this question depends on how merited the new appointments are,” he said and conceded that “All the eight inducted were worth it”.
On 27th of last month, the federal government had incorporated in the SBP’s board Mehmood Mandviwalla, Shahid Ahmed Khan, Nawaz Tiwana, Iskander Khan and Iqbal Hasan. Given Umer’s statement one may do away with the conspiracy theories hitting his ir her mind but the question still would remain unanswered why the federal government took years in appointing these board members.
The question bears more significance when analyzed against the backdrop of the role of the independent board which, according to official documents, governs the State Bank and is responsible for the general superintendence and direction of the affairs of the bank.
Until Feb 27, according to SBP website, Mirza Qamar Beg was the only non-executive director on the SBP’s board besides the ex-officio chairman, Governor Anwar, Acting Secretary Finance Abdul Khaliq and corporate secretary Sahar Z. Babar. The long-delayed appointments were made in place of Zaffar A. Khan, Mohsin Aziz, Waqar A Malik, Tariq Sehgal, Kamran Y Mirza and Asad Umer.