Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah, a retired IAS officer of J&K cadre, is heading for a World Bank assignment post retirement.

He has been named one of the three members of the World Bank's first Appeals Board set up early this month for the public scrutiny of the bank dealings. He will take up the new assignment for two years after retiring from the Central Information Commission in September. He was the first CIC appointed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005.

He had, in fact, resigned from the post in August last year instead of completing the five-year term as the CIC to head his home state J&K's State Information Commission. The centre, however, did not relieve him and he now becomes ill-eligible for the state post as the J&K State Right to Information Act stipulates a maximum age limit of 65 years -- Habibullah will turn 65 in September.

Habibullah, who also set up the Central Vigilance Commission, had wished to set up the state commission as well and then step down on completing 65 years of age, but the centre could not relieve him as the successor could not be finalised by a three-member panel of the prime minister, the law minister and the Lok Sabha opposition leader that is supposed to select the CIC under the RTI Act.

Besides Habibullah, there are eight Central Information Commissioners and the government could have picked any one of them to fill his vacancy, but even that could not be approved by the concerned panel, sources in the PMO said.

Habibullah, who hit headlines when he negotiated with the militants in the 1990s to vacate the Hazratbal shrine in Kashmir they had occupied, is often consulted and used by the prime minister as a pointsman for dealing with the Kashmir separatist leaders.

A distinguished administrator, Habibullah has passion for writing and has authored a score of books, including Rajiv Gandhi's India, Protection of Human Rights in a Disturbed Situation (reference to Kashmir), Political Economy of the Kashmir conflict, Kashmiris and the Kashmir Conflict, Conflict and Prospects for Enduring Peace, and The Islands and Searching for Common Ground in South Asia.