Ishrat Husain has been serving as the adviser to PM Imran Khan on Institutional Reforms and Austerity, with the status of Federal Minister, since August 2018. He had a distinguished career at the World Bank for over two decades 1979-1999. Among the key positions he held at the Bank were Resident Representative to Nigeria, head of the Bank’s Debt and International Finance Division, Chief Economist for Africa between 1991-94 and later as Chief Economist for East Asia and Pacific Region that included China. He became the Bank’s Director Poverty and Social Department and in 1997 he was named the Country Director for Central Asian Republics.
He was appointed as the Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan in 1999 and remained until December 2005. The Banker Magazine of London declared him as the Central Bank Governor of the year for Asia in 2005. He received the Asian Banker Lifetime achievement award in 2006. The President of Pakistan conferred upon him the highest civilian award of Nishan e Imtiaz in 2016 for his outstanding public service. He has also served as dean and director of the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) – the oldest graduate business school in Pakistan – between 2008 and 2016, and was until recently Public Policy Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington DC. He has maintained an active scholarly interest in development issues. He has authored 18 books and monographs and contributed more than three dozen articles in refereed journals and 27 chapters in books.
