KARACHI: The decision of Sindh caretaker Chief Minister retired Justice Maqbool Baqar to extend the tenure Dr S. Akbar Zaidi as the executive director of the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi, has been rejected by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) without assigning any specific reason, it emerged on Thursday.

Informed sources told Dawn that the Sindh boards and universities department had sent a summary to the caretaker CM and informed him that the four-year tenure of Dr Zaidi, the incumbent executive director of the IBA, was going to complete on Jan 12, 2024.

Two suggestions had been given to the caretaker chief minister that either the tenure of Dr Zaidi be extended by four years or advertise the vacancy of the executive director, they added.

Approving the first suggestion, the sources said, CM Baqar had extended the tenure of Dr Zaidi for another four years subject to the subsequent approval of the ECP.

Dr Akbar Zaidi’s four-year term set to end on Jan 12

However, the ECP communicated to the provincial government that its request to extend Dr Zaidi’s tenure had been declined.

“...request regarding extension of tenure of Prof Dr Syed Akbar Zaidi as Executive Director, IBA, Karachi for further period of four years w.e.f. 12.01.2024 has been declined by the Commission,” reads a Dec 5 letter signed by ECP official Waqas Ahmed Malik.

No reason has been mentioned in the letter.

‘Stopgap arrangement’

When contacted, a spokesperson for the CM House said that the chief minister had approved the summary to extend the tenure of Dr Zaidi in view of his “good performance”.

He said that the chief minister could ask the incumbent IBA head to continue after completion of his tenure as a stopgap arrangement till an elected government takes over.

The spokesperson said that otherwise the senior most director would automatically take the office of the IBA executive director till the appointment of a permanent one.

The sources said that the provincial government had no intention to challenge the ECP decision in court as any litigation on the matter would take time and might not be disposed of before the Feb 8 general elections.

A spokesperson for the IBA declined to comment.

Dr Zaidi, a renowned political economist with an experience of almost four decades of teaching and research in Pakistan and abroad, has been the IBA’s executive director since January 2020.

He completed his PhD in History from the University of Cambridge in 2009, MPhil in Economics from the University of Cambridge in 1993, MSc in Social Planning in Developing Countries from the London School of Economics in 1982 and BSc (Hons.) in Economics from University College London in 1980.

Prior to his appointment as the IBA’s head, Dr Zaidi served as a professor at Columbia University, New York.

Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2023