Akhtar Named Pakistan's First Female Central Banker

Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Shamshad Akhtar, an Asian Development Bank official, was named the first woman to run Pakistan's central bank.

President Pervez Musharraf appointed Akhtar to a three-year term as governor of the Karachi-based State Bank of Pakistan, central spokesman Syed Wasimuddin said today. Akhtar is currently director general of the Southeast Asia department at the ADB. She joined the multilateral lender in 1990 and previously had been a World Bank economist in Islamabad.

Akhtar has an M.S. in economics from Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad, an M.A. in development economics from England's University of Sussex and a Ph.D. in economics from Scotland's Paisley College of Technology. She studied at Harvard University in 1987 under the Fulbright program.

Akhtar will guide monetary policy for a nation in which one third of the 160 million people live on less than $1 a day and which must rebuild after an Oct. 8 earthquake in the Himalayan region of Kashmir killed more than 73,000. The government forecasts the $100 billion economy will expand 7 percent in the year to June 30, 2006, and consumer prices will rise 8 percent.

Read More..

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=100...6bYM&refer=asia

So is she replacing Ishrat Hosain....
or what...

Yes!

Shakers: Pakistan appoints woman as bank chief


KARACHI, Pakistan Pakistan appoints woman as bank chief

Pakistan on Sunday appointed Shamshad Akhtar, an official of the Asian Development Bank, to be governor of the country's central bank, making her the first woman to hold the post.

President Pervez Musharraf appointed Akhtar to a three-year term as head of the State Bank of Pakistan, said a spokesman, Syed Wasimuddin. Akhtar is currently director general of the Southeast Asia department of the development bank, which she joined in 1990. Previously, she had been a World Bank economist in Islamabad.

Akhtar has a master's degree in economics from Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad, a master's degree in development economics from the University of Sussex in England and a doctorate in economics from Paisley College of Technology in Scotland. She studied at Harvard University in 1987 under the Fulbright program.

Akhtar will guide monetary policy for a country in which a third of the population of 160 million lives on less than $1 a day. Pakistan must also rebuild after an earthquake Oct. 8 in Kashmir that killed more than 73,000 people. The government predicts that the $100 billion economy will expand 7 percent in the year through June 30, and that consumer prices will rise 8 percent.

"The new governor has challenges to face on improving the foreign currency reserves, checking inflation and giving the corporate sector easy access to funds," said Arif Habib, chairman of Arif Habib Investments in Karachi. The financial sector had "tremendous growth" during the tenure of Ishrat Husain, he said. Husain retired as the central bank chief Dec. 1.

She'll spend her whole day getting manicures.

That would be funny. But on a serious note, she does have an impressive eduacation and if she does her job right, that will show the world that the women in Pakistan are not always locked inside their houses wearing burkas.

This is indeed an encouraging news. The appointment of a woman in such high position will reflect positively for Pakistan.

^^you think so?
having the first woman leader of a country in modern days didnt help us much in terms of image. one person cant change the image

Well done Shamshad Akhtar, I hope she does a great job. Her appointment does wonders for our image abroad where most heads of corporate institutions are male. Just slightly off topic a woman was placed as head of treasury of the Islamic world during the time of Hazart Umar Farooq the second caliph of Islam!

i keep seeing the same mistake over and over again. dr. akhtar attended the SOAS at the university of london for her PhD. not the gangster school that is being mentioned in these articles. she was at harvard for her post doctoral fellowship there. that information is correct. i hope she is successful, even more so that dr. ishrat hussain was. good to see women being appointed to prominent positions in pakistan. very smart public relationing move by the government. in case you guys havent noticed, our foreign office spokesperson is a woman as well.

Indead a very good news for women............

this is part of mushs idea of "projection of soft image of pakistan".

I'm worried, what credentials does this woman have?

In the world of business, bits of paper are not enough, years of mistakes and lessons learnt from those are much more important.

Does she have the ability, the knowledge to do this job, or is she just a face put there to "soften" the nations image?

This is just good new

In this way a country can develeop much more than if it was only a "man" controlled country.

so let me counter that by asking you, when Dr. Ishrat Hussain got the job, what credentials did he have?

I think Dr. Hussain did an excellent job and hope that she follows in his footsteps.

never heard of her in economy related news...nor she headed any bank which won laurels at international leverl cos of her....so thats the biggest worry..and i think its step-II in enlightened moderation.

worried about what man? you think musharraf and shaukat aziz would put some random 'anaari' into arguably the most important financial position of pakistan. this is what jang wrote about her recently. just google her name. she's a very well known figure.




Dr Shamshad named new SBP governor

By our correspondent

KARACHI: President of Pakistan Gen Pervez Musharraf has appointed Dr Shamshad Akhtar as new Governor of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), says a notification issued by the Finance Division on Saturday.

She is working in Asian Development Bank (ADB) as Director General. She would be the first lady and 14th governor of the central bank of the country.

She is the second Muslim lady to head a central bank of a Muslim country. At present, Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz is serving as governor of the central bank of Malaysia, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM).

The SBP and the BNM have developed close relationship during the last five years.

Shamshad Akhtar is a PhD in Economics from Department of Economics, Harvard University, USA. Before completing her PhD, she was working with World Bank, Islamabad and Asian Development Bank, Islamabad.

She was the first working woman of ADB who was promoted to the rank of Director General. She has 24 years experience of working with international financial institutions.

She has officially intimated her elevation to the coveted post to ADB bosses, but she would take at least one week to come back to Pakistan.

She has the experience of almost all aspects of economics and particularly developmental economics covering regions from Pakistan to all South Asian countries, Peoples Republic of China and brief exposure to Mekong sub-region.

i don't know anything about her, or her predacessors, that's why i'm asking you guys....

it's just when you hear a woman in charge, in a bakward place like Pakistan it means 1 of 2 things....either she is the biz.....or she has been placed for image softening.

i don't her at all, that's why i asked.

if she has that experience, well and good!