TIP calls for trail against appointment of NBP President

Transparency International Pakistan has called for examining the alleged corruption and illegal appointment of NBP President Arif Usmani to ensure transparency.

Earlier, the government had made the questionable appointment of President NBP Arif Usmani and IHC had directed to remove him.

In a letter to the finance minister, Shaukat Tarin said that it received a complaint on the allegations of corruption according to NAO 1999, Section 9, on the allegations of corruption committed the illegal appointment of Chairman and President of NBP.

The complainant has made the following allegations regarding the appointment of NBP President Arif Usmani.

Mr. Arif Usmani’s appointment as President NBP was notified on 12.2.2019, and Mr. Zubyr Somroo’s appointment as Chairman NBP was notified on 14.04.2019.
On 26 June 2021, Honorable Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani in the writ petition in Islamabad High Court, nos. W.P. No.2097/2020, W.P.No.3179/2020, W.P.No. 3205/2020 & W.P. No. 3725/2020, ordered that “the very appointment of President NBP i.e. Arif Usmani is defective and illegal as he did not possess requisite qualification provided in the advertisement in a particular manner qua the subject/discipline, which is not related to the field of banking, finance, economics, business administration, etc. although the appointment has been made through advertisement published in dailies, on the other hand, the very appointment of Chairman NBP i.e. Zubyr Somroo is also declared illegal, who has not been recommended through a transparent manner by the Finance Division, especially when there was no advertisement for his position, which reflects that other best suitable candidates have not been given a fair chance to participate in the recruitment which is in violation of Article 25 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973.
Therefore, the captioned writ petitions are ALLOWED. the appointments of Arif Usmani, President, NBP and Zubyr Somroo, Chairman, NBP are declared to be illegal.”
According to NAO 1999, National Accountability Bureau has filed a number of Corruption References against Prime Ministers, Ministers, officers, and beneficiaries responsible for illegal appointments, viz. PIA CEO, KPT, AEDB, and many more. In 2018 a reference was filed on the illegal appointment of Mr. Basharat Hassan Bashir in AEDB, against Ex-Prime Minister Mr. Shaukat Aziz and Minister Mr. Liaquat Jatoi, which caused a loss of PKR 210.6 million to the national exchequer.

The most recent reference is on the appointment of MD PSO, in which reference was filed against Mr. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Ex-Minister, Mr. Sheikh Imran ul Haq, Ex MD, PSO, Mr. Yaqub Sattar, Ex DMD PSO, and others for causing Rs 138.96 million (remuneration paid to MD, PSO) loss to the national exchequer due to misuse of authority and illegal appointment of MD, PSO in violation of rules and regulations.

As the appointments of Chairman NBP and President NBP Arif Usmani were not according to laid down procedures and have been declared illegal, besides the recovery of losses inflicted on the national exchequer by way of hundreds of millions of rupee remuneration paid to Chairman and President, the Ministers/officers responsible for illegal appointments, and beneficiaries should be tried for committing corruption under NAO 1999, Section 10.

TI PAKISTAN COMMENTS & RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on NAO1999, and IHC Court Order dated 26.06.2021, allegations are prima facie correct.

The Ministry of Finance is requested to examine the allegations, and immediately take measures to initiated action for recovery of the losses incurred to the exchequer and ensure that responsible officers are made accountable.

Transparency International Pakistan is striving for across the board application of Rule of Law, which is the only way to stop corruption, and achieve Zero tolerance against corruption.