ISLAMABAD – The Imran Khan-led federal government has given the approval to appoint secretary to Prime Minister Azam Khan as Executive Director World bank (WB) for a term of four years.
A notification issued by the Cabinet Secretariat Establishment division said Azam Khan, Secretary to the Prime Minister, had been appointed in the World Bank for a span of four years starting from November 1.
The tenure of the current director, Naveed Kamran Baloch, will end in November this year and Azam Khan, who belongs to the 1990 batch of Central Superior Services of KP cadre, will replace him.
Prime Minister’s Office revealed that Khan went through the procedure which was followed by previous World Bank executive director postings however critics claimed that the process was short-circuited for PM’s close aide.
Azam Khan has been named out of top bureaucrats including Balochistan Chief Secretary Mathar Niaz Rana, Privatisation Secretary Nasir Jamey and Industries Division Secretary Jawad Rafique Malik.
The coveted post of executive director represents a group of countries including Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Tunisia, Morocco, Ghana, and Algeria on the World Bank’s board.
WB official is reportedly hired to defend development projects of seven nations while providing input on their macroeconomic reports, giving opinions on global economic issues, and defending quotas and voting rights of their constituency.
Reports in local media also suggest that Azam Khan earlier picked Asad Hayauddin as secretary for economic affairs, who then nominated him for the foreign post. The government was supposed to move the summary in August or September however Khan secured the summary around five months earlier.
