Pakistan, Afghanistan no longer in World Bank's South Asia region

The World Bank has turfed out Pakistan and Afghanistan from its South Asia administrative region, said two people aware of the development, even as India presses multilateral banks to stop lending to Islamabad for its role in fomenting terrorism.

- Utpal Bhaskar & Gireesh Chandra Prasad

The people cited above said Pakistan and Afghanistan will now be grouped under the bank's Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region, which would leave the South Asia group with six countries—India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Other than Pakistan and Afghanistan, the bank's Mena region includes Lebanon, Libya, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza, and Yemen, among other nations—a geographically distinct region from South Asia.

However, the World Bank clarified that the two nations had been classed as part of Mena to enable "managerial oversight" of two of its group institutions—the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA).