ISLAMABAD, Dec 19: The Supreme Court summoned on Wednesday Raja Azeemul Haque, a son-in-law of Prime Minister Raja Parvez Ashraf, who has been nominated, out of turn, executive director of World Bank in Washington.

Headed by Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, a three-judge bench also asked Establishment Secretary Taimoor Azmat and Finance Secretary Wajid Ali Rana to appear before the court on January 4 along with the record and details about the appointment.

The court had taken suo motu notice of the elevation of Mr Haque when he was tipped for the coveted post by the prime minister by exercising his discretionary powers.

According to media reports, the quick promotion of Mr Haque to the top post in a few years during which he had been elevated from grade-18 to grade-21 has raised eyebrows and caused heart burning among government officials.

The finance ministry, according to the reports, had opposed the nomination though the summary for his appointment had been moved by the Economic Affairs Division.

Mr Haque, an officer of the Income Tax Group, was working in grade-18 when the PPP came into power in March 2008. He quit the job and was hired by the Employees Old-age Benefit Institution (EOBI) in grade-20 about two years ago.

Soon after Raja Ashraf assumed the PM’s office, Mr Haque was promoted to grade-21. Since then he has been serving in the prime minister’s secretariat as additional secretary.

The lucrative post of the WB ED is considered to be important as it represents seven countries in the World Bank’s executive board where multi-billion dollar projects are approved every year. Pakistan-nominated ED also represents Afghanistan, Iran, Algeria, Morocco, Ghana and Tunisia.

In a related development, the court has detached a petition relating to the illegal appointment in the EOBI after Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan representing the department requested the court to separate his case from that of the appointment of Mr Haque as WB official.