Metro53 - Karachi (Web Desk) – Former Finance Minister and State Bank Governor Dr. Shamshad Akhtar has passed away. According to reports, her funeral prayer will be offered tomorrow after Zuhr in Karachi.
Dr. Shamshad Akhtar took office as the 14th Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan on January 2, 2006, becoming the first female governor of the central bank. She had extensive national and international experience in banking.
Before her appointment as Governor, she served as Director General for Southeast Asia at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) from January 2004. Earlier, she was Deputy Director General in the same department and also held the position of Director for Administration, Finance, and Trade Division for East and Central Asia at ADB.
Dr. Akhtar began her career at the Asian Development Bank in 1990 as a Senior and Principal Specialist in the finance sector, later becoming Manager in 1998. Between 1998 and 2001, she also served as Coordinator for the APEC Ministers of Finance Group.
She contributed to several bank committees, including the Reorganization Committee, Appeals Committee, and Supervisory Committee. She represented ADB at the Bank for International Settlements and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO).
Dr. Shamshad Akhtar had broad expertise in financial and economic affairs of Central Asian countries and Southeast Asia, including China. Before joining ADB, she worked for ten years as an economist with the World Bank’s Resident Mission in Pakistan and collaborated with both federal and Sindh government planning departments. Her work included analyzing economic conditions, finance, agriculture, industry, and structural reforms. She also authored papers on irrigation systems, intergovernmental financial relations, poverty, and foreign direct investment.
She played a key role in diversifying financial markets, including monetary policy, industrial banking, restructuring the Securities & Exchange Commission, and the Insurance Commission. She closely collaborated with Pakistan’s Stock Exchange and private institutions and provided advisory services on banking regulations, institutional reforms, and bond markets to promote long-term financial growth.
Born in Hyderabad, Dr. Shamshad Akhtar received her early education in Karachi and Islamabad. She earned a BA in Economics from Punjab University (1974), an MSc in Economics from Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, an MA in Development Economics from the University of Sussex (1977), and a PhD in Economics from Paisley College of Technology, UK (1980). She was also a Fulbright Scholar and Visiting Fellow at Harvard University’s Economics Department in 1987.
Dr. Shamshad Akhtar presented numerous papers on economics and finance at international conferences, seminars, and symposiums. Her research focused on monetary and financial policy, banking and capital markets, international financial structures, regulation and supervision, and industrial and corporate restructuring.
