Three senior bankers are in the run for the governor’s office of the State Bank of Pakistan while the Finance Ministry is mulling over the names of two deputy governors for appointment as the acting governor of the central bank.
According to informed sources, deputy governors Saeed Ahmed and Ashraf Wathra are the main contenders for the temporary appointment. They said that although Wathra holds extensive knowledge of investment banking and commercial banking operations among other experiences, Ahmed is a former classmate of Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar and stands a better chance to grab the opportunity.
Sources said that Ahmed’s appointment as the deputy governor last week was one of the reasons for the stepping down of Yaseen Anwar from the SBP office.
The three main contenders for the governor’s office are Mr Aurangzeb, former head of ABN-Amro Bank who is now settled in Singapore. He is the nephew of former judge Khalilur Rehman Ramday.
The other contenders are former CitiBank senior banker Zubair Soomro and Munir Kamal, the brother of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Asad Umar and chairman of the National Bank of Pakistan.
