Govt hesitant to link governor SBP’s tenure with performance

KARACHI: The government led by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf seems reluctant to relate State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Reza Baqir’s tenure to success and to put proper accountability in the forthcoming proposed amendments to the SBP.

The central bank is all set to exchange proposed amendments draft to the SBP Act with the Ministry of Finance by the end of January 2020. An International Monetary Fund (IMF) technical mission is scheduled to visit Pakistan next week to finalize the draft amendments to the SBP to grant SBP autonomy.

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An official source said, “We will stick to the deadlines set for proposing amendments to the SBP Act.” The source added that it would be quite important how much independence the government proposed for the central bank’s operational autonomy.

Top official sources reported on Saturday that there was a clear difference between the Pakistani side’s commitments to grant autonomy to the IMF under the SBP Act.

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On the eve of the IMF program, the Pakistani side pledged that the lengthening of SBP governor’s term would be related to success and transparency, after the first review under the IMF program, Pakistani authorities ruled out certain commitments from the signed documents to the IMF through the Economic and Financial Policy Memorandum (MEFP).