Mirza Muzaffar Ahmad
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Mirza Muzaffar Ahmad | |
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| Born | 18 February 1913 Washington DC , United States |
Mirza Muzaffar Ahmad (28 February 1913 – 23 July 2002),
Education and early life
He was educated first at Government College, Lahore, and later at the University of London and the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. He joined the Indian Civil Service - the ICS - in 1939. Following Partition in 1947, he joined the CSP (Civil Service of Pakistan), this was to mark the beginning of an illustrious and distinguished career within the Pakistan Civil Service. Mirza Muzaffar Ahmad was a member of the
International career in the World Bank and IMF
MM Ahmad is notable for his career as the former executive director and Vice President of the World Bank.
A few months after the religiously motivated knife attack on MM Ahmad, he left Pakistan for Washington DC. Following retirement from the Civil Service of Pakistan, he joined the World Bank initially as Executive Director for Pakistan and the Middle East and was later elected to become deputy executive secretary of the joint ministerial committee of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, better known as the Development Committee. He retired from that position in 1984.
Significant achievements
MM Ahmad's biggest contribution was in the signing of the Indus Basin Treaty and the procurement of development assistance from bilateral and multilateral donors for the construction of
Pakistani career
Most of this contingent of highly able and trained civil servants who opted for service in Pakistan were to play important roles in establishing the state of Pakistan. Most of them went to Karachi, the country's first capital. MM Ahmad was first posted in
At this juncture in his career, MM was arguably the most powerful civil servant in Pakistan, with supervisory authority over all three ministries. M M Ahmad's contribution to the process of economic development was recognised by President
The difficult task of dismantling the One Unit was entrusted to a committee of officials headed by MM Ahmad. MM represented Punjab while Ghulam Ishaq Khan represented the Frontier Province, A.G.N. Kazi, Sindh and Yusuf Achkzai Balochitsn. MM guided the 'One Unit dissolution committee', towards resolving all outstanding issues in time set by the Yahya government. The committee's plan went into effect on 1 July 1970, when West Pakistan "One Unit" was dissolved and all power was transferred to the provinces of Balochistan, the North-west Frontier Province, Punjab and Sindh.
MM was also entrusted with the delicate task of getting the governments of East and West Pakistan to accept the macroeconomic framework developed by the Planning Commission for the Fourth Five-Year Plan. The plan was to run for the period between 1970 and 1975. Two panels of economists were set up, one chaired by Pervez Hasan, West Pakistan's Chief Economist, and the other by Professor Nurul Islam, a Bengali economist, to resolve the differences between the two provinces. The two panels arrived at different conclusions. MM Ahmad stepped into the breach to resolve the dispute between the two groups of experts and the two provinces they represented.
Hate campaign and attempted murder
MM Ahmad faced a hate campaign and knife attack for his faith, he was a member of the
On 15 September 1971 a
MM Ahmad had been the target of a number of attacks in the right-wing Urdu press on account of his faith and the prominence of his position. Militantly religious forces which had been suppressed in the Ayub Khan era felt emboldened under the subsequent Yahya Khan government which strongly backed them against left-wing and ethnic parties.
Many radicalising messages were put out during the campaign for Pakistan's first general election in December 1970 and the subsequent atmosphere of crisis - religious parties were upset about their poor showing, and redoubled attacks on the Ahmadi community which had backed the successful
Aslam Qureshi was subsequently tried and convicted for attempted murder by a military court, but released early by
Aslam Qureshi's temporary disappearance in February 1983 was used by his
References
- ^ "M.M. Ahmad dies". Dawn. 24 July 2002. Retrieved 30 September 2016.
External links
- Those eventful years - Details of some of his achievements
- Relevant para on M M Ahmad
- M M Ahmad dies
- Memorandum of Conversation State Department
- M M Ahmad Passes Away
- Interview of Sartaj Aziz on services of M.M Ahmad's for Pakistan on YouTube
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