Pakistan adopts Ishrat Hussain's reform blueprint, but rollout will be phased, Aurangzeb says
Pakistan's government has adopted the institutional reform blueprint of former State Bank of Pakistan governor Dr Ishrat Hussain as the foundation of its restructuring agenda, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said, while conceding that carrying the changes through federal ministries and departments will happen in phases.
Speaking at a Sustainable Development Policy Institute ceremony where Dr Ishrat received a Lifetime Achievement Award, Aurangzeb said he had personally approached the former central bank chief for his institutional reforms report and adopted it as the basis of the government's programme, rather than discarding earlier work and starting again. "The groundwork was done by you, and we are now leveraging it. However, execution and implementation are taking a little more time," he told Dr Ishrat, describing him as a mentor.
State Bank Governor Jameel Ahmad credited Dr Ishrat with transforming the central bank during his six-year tenure from December 1999, when Pakistan faced international isolation, sanctions after the 1998 nuclear tests and a severe balance-of-payments crisis. He said Dr Ishrat produced a comprehensive strategy paper within months of taking office and turned it into a programme of institutional reform that strengthened the SBP's autonomy, professional capacity and regulatory framework, and that his emphasis on merit and continuous learning built a generation of central bankers who went on to lead in the financial sector. Ahmad also recalled Dr Ishrat's early recognition of technology, including an IT committee to modernise the central bank and the wider banking industry.
In his address, Dr Ishrat urged young Pakistanis to invest in education and public service, saying "your beginnings need not determine your destination" as he recounted overcoming academic difficulties and social exclusion. He said he had visited 79 universities after retirement to motivate students facing economic uncertainty, shrinking opportunities and the challenge of artificial intelligence, and recalled his 20-year World Bank career, including work on reforms in Ghana, post-conflict Tajikistan and advice to Azerbaijan on a sovereign wealth fund, whose state oil fund he said had accumulated around USD 75 billion.
Former commerce adviser Abdul Razak Dawood praised Dr Ishrat's transformation of the State Bank, calling the award well deserved, while Habib Bank Limited chairman Sultan Ali Allana described him as an institution in himself, citing his combination of civil service experience and international financial expertise.
