PESHAWAR, Feb 3: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is about to launch hunt for a suitable candidate to head the provincial public sector Bank of Khyber, according to official sources.

The office of Bank of Khyber’s managing director would fall vacant next month following the departure of Bilal Mustafa, the incumbent MD, at the completion of his contractual term on March 5, 2013.

“The provincial finance department has initiated the process to look for a replacement of the incumbent managing director, who is set to leave the office after working as BoK’s MD for five years in a row,” said an official.

An official advertisement seeking applications from suitable candidates would shortly be published in the national press and a high level committee would conduct the hiring process, added the official.

However, the provincial government has initiated the hiring process at a time when there is a ban on the recruitment of any kind in the public sector entities in line with the Election Commission of Pakistan’s instructions dated January 22, 2013.

“In view of ECP’s instructions, the process to hire the BoK managing director should die down,” said a well-placed official.

He, however, hastened to add that the provincial finance department had not yet given a thought to stall the hiring process.

The government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the major stakeholder in Bank of Khyber. The government owns 71 per cent of BoK’s shares, being traded at around Rs6.50 per share these days undergoing a massive slide from the previous levels of Rs40 per share back in 2006.

The incumbent managing director was recruited in March 2008 for a period of three years.

Later, his tenure was extended for two years. According to official sources, the tenure of the outgoing managing director in office has been mixed baggage.

While the bank’s financial health and profits recorded a considerable growth during his term, the administrative costs and instances of political interference also touched new heights.

The bank saw its ‘profit before tax’ going up from Rs206 million in 2008 to Rs1.2 billion in 2011 and its ‘profit after tax’ improving from Rs137 million in 2008 to Rs872 million in 2011.

On the flipside, the bank saw a noticeable increase in the number of its contractual employees and an unprecedented growth in its administrative costs as a result of a growing number of executive officers totalling more than 20.

Similarly, it saw increase in government’s interference in its administrative matters as a couple of provincial ministers from Peshawar got their ‘blue eyed’ from among the BoK officers promoted at the cost of others.