Former SBP governor Dr Shamshad Akhtar passes away

KARACHI: Former finance minister and State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) governor Dr Shamshad Akhtar passed away after cardiac arrest at the age of 71, family sources said on Saturday.

According to the source, her funeral prayers will be offered in Karachi tomorrow after Zuhr.

Dr Shamshad Akhtar assumed office as the 14th governor of the State Bank of Pakistan on January 2, 2006. She was the first woman to serve as SBP governor and had extensive national and international experience in banking.

Before her appointment as SBP governor, she was associated with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) as director general of the Southeast Asia Department, a position she had held since January 2004.

Earlier, she served as deputy director general of the same department. She also remained ADB’s director of Governance, Finance and Trade Division for East and Central Asia.

Shamshad Akhtar began her career at the Asian Development Bank in 1990. After serving as senior and lead specialist in the financial sector, she became a manager there in 1998.

From 1998 to 2001, she also served as ADB’s coordinator for the APEC Finance Ministers’ Group.

She worked on several ADB committees, including the Restructuring Committee, Appeals Committee and Oversight Committee.

She represented the Asian Development Bank in dialogues with the Bank for International Settlements and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO).

She had also been the finance minister in the caretaker set-ups prior to the 2018 and 2024 general elections.

Dr Shamshad developed deep expertise in the financial and economic affairs of Central Asian states and Southeast Asia, including the People’s Republic of China.

Before joining ADB, Shamshad Akhtar worked for 10 years as an economist with the World Bank’s resident mission in Pakistan. She was also associated for some time with the planning departments of the federal and Sindh governments.

She worked on diverse subjects including economic situation analysis, finance and monetary issues, and structural reforms in key sectors such as industry and agriculture.

She also authored papers on topics such as Pakistan’s irrigation system, intergovernmental fiscal relations, poverty and its dimensions, and foreign direct investment.

Dr Shamshad also played a role in diversifying financial markets, including analysing monetary policy and the state of industrial banking (at the World Bank), restructuring the Securities and Exchange Commission, and reforming the insurance commission.

She also worked closely with private institutions, including the Pakistan Stock Exchange. She continued to advise central banks on financial market reforms. In addition to her involvement in legal, regulatory and institutional reforms of the banking sector, she provided advisory services to diversify the banking industry through the development of the bond market and the use of long-term funds.

Born in Hyderabad, Shamshad Akhtar received her early education in Karachi and Islamabad, maintaining an outstanding academic record. She completed her BA in Economics from the University of the Punjab in 1974 and an MSc in Economics from Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad.

She earned an MA in Development Economics from the University of Sussex in 1977 and a doctorate in Economics from Paisley College of Technology, UK, in 1980. She was also a Fulbright Scholar (post-doctoral fellowship) and served as a visiting fellow in the Economics Department at Harvard University in 1987.

Dr Shamshad Akhtar presented numerous papers on economics and finance at international conferences, seminars and symposia. Her key research interests included monetary and fiscal policy, banking and capital markets, international financial architecture, regulation and supervision, and industrial and corporate restructuring.