The federal government has given the Look After Charge of National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) President to Group Chief-CIBG Rehmat Ali Hasnie.
According to a notification from the Ministry of Finance, on completion of three months extended period of President NBP Arif Usmani, the competent authority, Finance Division assigned the look after charge of the post of president/CEO NBP to Group Chief-CIBG Rehmat Ali Hasnie being the senior-most executive of the bank to dispose of routine/day to day affairs of the bank with effect from May 12, 2022, till joining of the regular incumbent.
According to documents available with ProPakistani, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had also started an investigation to probe illegal appointments in NBP. At the time, the accountability bureau had directed NBP to furnish details of 20 officers including Rehmat Ali Hasnie.
SBP’s Audit Objections
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) had also raised audit objections against Hasnie, stating that he got a promotion to the rank of SEVP by cheating/misstatement, sources told ProPakistani.
Official sources quoting the audit report of SBP stated that Hasnie was rejected in internal placement and against the same vacancy advertisement, he applied as an external candidate while being EVP of NBP. He joined NBP on 25-01-2010 as Senior Vice President and was promoted to “Executive Vice President” vide meeting dated 18-12-2012 with promotion effective from 25-01-2013.
Following were lacunas in his promotion as EVP, according to SBP:
- His promotion was out of turn as SVPs on contract at that time were not considered. The BOD was kept in dark by falsely stating that interviews of all SVPs have been conducted.
- He was hired on contract, hence his elevation/promotion was under the auspices of the “Renegotiation of Contracts Policy” approved by BOD in October 2011. The said policy was, issued vide President Office Circular No 07/12 dated 31-05-2012 as reviewed on 24-01-2012.
- The guidelines under said policy state, “In the normal course, contract employees will not be considered for promotions during the contract period”. Hasni was “considered” for promotion during the period of the contract and was interviewed by Strategic Policy Committee on 08-06-12 and 25-06-2012 and was then interviewed/considered for promotion on 07-08-2012 in violation of the policy.
- It further contained the clause that contract employees having scored a minimum of 25 marks will be interviewed by the Interview Committee. However, Hasni, as per the criteria and marks provided in the said policy scored 24 marks and was promoted. No scoring sheets were prepared and it was also pointed out in SBP’s 2014 audit report.
The sources added that the story of unauthorized and out-of-turn promotions does not end here. Hasni was promoted as SEVP on 10-10-2016 in violation of President Office Circular No 07/12 dated 31-05-2012 as no interviews for elevation were conducted. He was actually “hired” (again) for the position of SEVP. Following are the issues, and illegalities in his appointment as SEVP:
- As per Rule 7 of NBP Staff Service Rules (SSR) 1973 appointments will be made by promotion or recruitment.
- He was rejected for the post of Group Chief Corporate & Investment Banking in interviews conducted on 01-01-2015 in response to Hasni’s application in internal placement Circular HRM&AG/ P&IRD/ 2014/ 811 dated 24-11-2014. Eight internal candidates applied but no candidate found suitable for the respective position.
- The process for external hiring was initiated vide advertisement in a national daily dated 26-07-2015. The candidate selected against this advertisement, Khurshid Zafar, did not join the bank.
- The head hunter re-advertised the same position dated 17-01-2016. The post was advertised for the third time on 13-03-2016 “with relaxed educational criteria”.
- Hasni applied through this advertisement and was shortlisted as an “internal candidate” against “external advertisement” and was interviewed will “all external candidates” on 05-04-2016 by President NBP with five external candidates.
- Three candidates were interviewed by Board HR committee on 26-04-2016, Jamal Baqir, Imran Ahad and Rehmat Hasni (who was serving EVP at NBP).
- During the meeting of Board HR committee (BHRC) it was resolved by BHRC and recommended to the Board of Directors that the Corporate and Investment Group be split into two groups namely “Corporate Banking Group” and “Investment Banking Group” and Jamal Baqir be appointed as SEVP/Group Chief for former and Rehmat Ali Hasni be elevated as SEVP and be appointed as SEVP Group Chief for later.
The Board of Directors in their meeting dated 10-10 2016 approved the above recommendations by violating a number of policies, principles, and regulations.
Further, the Investment Banking Group used as a Special Purpose Vehicle for the promotion of Hasni was abolished in December 2019 and he was made the Group Chief of Inclusive Development Group (IDG) handling housing, SE, ME and Commercial Business whereas per his CV he had no experience. Further, it is pertinent to mention that the IDG remained continuously in loss, added the sources.
