Who’s going to be the new finance minister?
 

ISLAMABAD: The government is due to announce soon a new finance minister to replace Shaukat Tarin, who relinquished his charge on Monday.

International donors will want to see a technocrat appointed to replace Tarin to ensure Pakistan keeps the reforms on track and follows the steps Tarin set with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $7.6 billion loan package agreed in November 2008.

The IMF increased the loan to $11.3 billion in July. Pakistani stocks have lost 3 per cent in dull turnover since Tarin announced he was going, partly because of concern about his replacement but also because of a tax on share purchases to be introduced in the new fiscal year beginning on July 1.

On Monday, stocks were 1.33 per cent lower at 9,529.68 points in thin trade at 0829 GMT. Government officials said last week four candidates were being considered. Here are some facts about them:

Hafiz Pasha

Pasha is a prominent economist and a member of the government’s economic advisory council. He is dean of the school of social sciences at Beaconhouse National University in Pakistan. Pasha also served as an assistant secretary general at the United Nations, a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) assistant administrator and a director of the UNDP’s regional office for Asia and the Pacific.

Pasha served as a deputy chairman of the Planning Commission in the mid-1990s under then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and in 1998 became a finance adviser to Sharif. ‘The News’ said last week the military establishment backed Pasha for the job. It also said the IMF wanted to see Pasha appointed as he would help the implementation of economic reforms as he has been aggressively involved in budget making, tax reforms and even in talks with the Fund under the $11.3 billion bailout package.

Pasha was expected to be appointed an adviser to the prime minister on finance and revenue, the newspaper said. That was the same post Tarin held before he became a senator and took over as minister. Cabinet ministers have to be members of parliament.

Nasim Beg

Beg is the founder and chief executive of Arif Habib Ltd, a prominent asset management company. A qualified chartered accountant, Beg served as the deputy chief executive of the state-run National Investment Trust, which manages the country’s largest and oldest mutual fund. Beg was briefly the chief executive of the NIT.

In 2003, he was part of a Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan task force on developing a voluntary pension scheme. He is also a member of the prime minister’s economic advisory council. Beg has extensive experience of industry and finance but has never held public office. The News reported that the Presidency was supporting Beg for the job.

Makhdoom Shahabuddin

Shahabuddin is a lawyer-turned-politician and member of President Asif Ali Zardari’s ruling political party and a minister in the federal government. He was elected to the National Assembly in 1994 and served as minister of state for finance. In 2008, he again won a National Assembly seat in an election that restored civilian rule and was appointed federal minister for planning and development. He was recently transferred to the Ministry of Health in a minor cabinet reshuffle.

The News said last week Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was backing Shahabuddin for the job “but there are serious question marks over his ability to handle the Herculean task in such critical times”.

Ishrat Husain

Husain was governor of the State Bank of Pakistan from 1999 to 2005 and is now dean and director of the prominent Institute of Business Administration in Karachi. He also served as a World Bank director for the Central Asian Republics and as chief economist for the bank’s African region and the East Asia and Pacific region.

However, an official with knowledge of developments said last week Husain had been approached by the government about the job but had declined it. The News said he was virtually out of the race.

Another name

There is some speculation that Hina Rabbani Khar, minister of state for finance and economic affairs, could become the next finance minister. Khar held the same post in the previous government but was elected to parliament in 2008 as a member of Zardari’s party. Khar has been prominently involved in negotiations with aid donors and last year she became the first woman to present the budget to parliament.