Dr. Abdul Hafeez
Shaikh
Federal Minister for Privatization and Investment
Pakistan
Dr.
Abdul Hafeez Shaikh was appointed Federal
Minister for Privatization and Investment in April
2003. He is an economist of international repute,
who was appointed as Advisor to the Prime Minister
on Privatization & Investment with a status
of Federal Minister in December 2002. He was elected
member of the Senate of Pakistan in March 2003.
Dr. Shaikh has over 25 years experience in policymaking
and management. During 2000-2002 he served in the
Sindh Government as Minister for Finance, Planning
and Development.
He remained country
head of the World Bank in Saudi Arabia and also
led assignments and advised more than 18 countries
of Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa as a senior
World Bank official. Some of these countries include
Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia,
Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Romania, Czech Republic,
Argentina, Bangladesh, Jordan, Qatar, Malta, Botswana,
Tanzania and Ghana.
Before joining
the World Bank, he worked at Harvard University
in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has a Ph. D in economics
and authored many publications including a book
on ‘Argentina’s Privatization’.
He also led the teams for successful privatization
in many countries in the field of telecommunication,
electricity, transport, aviation, banking and manufacturing.
His nearly three
years as the Federal Minister for Privatisation
& Investment have been the most successful in
Pakistan’s history. Transactions over Rs 50
billion have been completed in a transparent fashion
in banking, energy and manufacturing sector. Using
the slogan of “Privatization for the People”
shares in several companies have been given to 0.4
million people, creating broad ownership for the
privatization program.
