PESHAWAR: The appointment of the Bank of Khyber’s managing director appears to be just around the corner as seven of the eight candidates shortlisted for the post appeared before a selection committee for final interview on Tuesday.
The provincial government-owned bank has been functioning without a permanent head since October last year when managing director Shamsul Qayyum completed his stormy tenure.
On Oct 25, senior executive of the bank Mohammad Shahbaz Jameel was given the additional charge of the MD’s office.
The relevant officials told Dawn that a selection committee headed by the chief secretary and consisting of additional chief secretary (planning and development), senior Board of Revenue member, finance secretary and some of the board’s private members interviewed the candidates at the Civil Offices Mess.
Seven shortlisted candidates undergo final interview for MD post
The name of the selected candidate will be sent for the provincial government for approval and after chief minister nod’s finance department notifies new MD subject to final clearance from the regulator State Bank of Pakistan.
Among those, who turned up for the final interview, were Ahmad Fawad Hashmi, Saiful Islam, Mohammad Shahab Khattak, acting BOK MD Mohammad Shahbaz Jameel, Amjad Ali Arbab, Sher Afsar Khan and Qazi Munir ul Haq, while Tahir Yaqoob Bhati did not appeared for the interview.
Ahmed Fawad Hashmi is a senior banker with more than 30 years of banking experience and has served with several national and international banking institutions.
His most recent assignment was at the erstwhile NIB Bank as group head special assets management and commercial banking group before it was merged with the MCB Bank.
Saiful Islam is also a senior banker with the more than 30 years of experience and was most recently was associated with the Allied Bank as the chief banking services.
BOK acting head Mohammad Shahbaz Jameel was heading conventional banking operations at the bank before he assumed acting charge of MD office.
Mr Jameel has more than 25 years experience in banking sector and has worked with the NIB Bank, UBL, Pakistan Kuwait Investment Company, Pak Oman Investment Company and Habib Bank AG Zurich among others.
Amjad Ali Arbab has also served in the BOK, while Qazi Munirul Haq, also a senior BOK executive, has also worked as the acting MD of the bank. Mohammad Shahab Khattak has worked with Meezan and AlFalah.
A senior government official told Dawn that about 37 candidates had applied for the position after the post was advertised and of them eight candidates were shortlisted.
He said seven of the eight shortlisted candidates appeared in the final interview, while another one remained absent.
The official said the chief secretary had made it clear in the very first meeting of the selection committee that the BOK chief executive officer would be selected ‘purely on merit’.
He said the resolve to appoint a bank’s head on merit was apparently shaped by the appointment of the bank’s last head, which became a huge embarrassment for the government, as he got engaged in a messy spat with the finance minister.
The official said the BOK was one of the most important institutions of the province as it not only earned money but also circulated money by giving loans etc and thus, leading to income generation in the province.
“For this reason, we want to hire its head on merit and leave the messy past behind,” he said.
Another official said the selection committee had selected one of the candidates but refused to disclose his name.
Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2018
