Planning Commission hires staff from Academia,Corporate Sector

Matching the Right People for the Right Job … Congratulation to Ahsan Iqbal for this great selection !

**Planning Commission hires staff from academia, corporate sector
**
By The Newspaper’s Staff Reporter
Updated a day ago

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Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal. — File photo

**ISLAMABAD: **The Planning Commission made eight major inductions on Wednesday, including seven members and a chief economist.

The inductions were approved by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on the recommendation of Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal.

According to an official statement, the Planning Commission has **broken the tradition of appointing retired officials.

** “The new recruitments have been made by attracting talent from top academic and corporate institutions of the country in line with the new vision to transform the commission into a development think-tank.”

**** Nadeem Javed ***has been hired as chief economist, who holds a Ph.D in Economics from France and has an extensive experience in economic and finance sector.

Previously, he has worked as the Director of Karachi School of Business & Leadership (KSBL) and has taught macroeconomy and global economy at several universities, including LUMS and SKEMA Business School, France. He has been a member of working group on regulatory reforms at the Ministry of Finance, and has also worked at State Bank of Pakistan.

*Malik Ahmad Khan has been selected as Member Infrastructure and Regional Connectivity, who holds a degree in civil/environmental engineering from SEAS at the George Washington University and an MBA from the Said Business School at the University of Oxford where he was on a Professional Management Scholarship at Green Templeton College.

He has a career spanning over 15 years and has served world’s most admired corporations and public sector organisations, including 10 of the Fortune 50, McKinsey and Company, Standard Life Capital Partners, Fidelity Investments, Acumen, the City of Toronto, various agencies of the government of Pakistan and a variety of global multi-lateral organisations. Ahmad is on the advocacy boards of the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford as well as being an advisor to Acumen Pakistan.

**** Dr Syed Tahir Hijazi ***has been hired as Member Governance, who holds a Ph.D in Development Economics from Clark University, USA. Dr Hijazi has a professional career of more than 36 years and has served in many educational institutions including University of Central Punjab, International Islamic University, American College of Greece Athens in various capacities such as Pro-Rector and Professor. He has also served UNDP and Government of Pakistan earlier and published extensively in the area of governance.

**** Dr Naeem uz Zafar ***is selected as Member Social Sector. Dr Zafar holds a Ph.D in Economics from Northern Illinois University, USA and MBA (Finance) from IBA Karachi. He has extensive teaching and research experience of economics and social policy. He has held various teaching and administrative positions in top business schools of Pakistan. Prior to career of economics, he held various technical positions in manufacturing and power plant industries in Pakistan.

**** Professor Dr Muhammad Yahya Khawaja ***is hired as Member Information Technology & Science and Technology. Dr Khawaja has Ph.D in Information Management System and Masters in Computer Engineering from University of Missouri-Rolla, USA. He is a versatile engineer and project manager with considerable international exposure and established work history in North America and Pakistan to deliver products and services in the realm of Science and Information Technology, business and engineering bases of knowledge. He is an effective technology trainer with teaching and research experience in Pakistan, Canada and USA. Dr Yahya has authored and co-authored over 70 research publications and supervised graduate students at both MS and PhD level.

**** Muhammad Shahid Chaudhry**,* selected as Member Implementation and Monitoring, has an MSc in Industrial Engineering from Mississippi State University, USA and BSc Chemical Engineering from UET, Lahore. He is a Member of American Institute of Industrial Engineering and has an extensive experience in planning, monitoring and execution of projects. He has previously worked in monitoring and evaluation departments of organisations like Descon, SMEDA, Berger, KFC, Dow Hercules and the World Bank.

**** Ayesha Javed Eirabie ***will be rendering her services as Member Development Communications in the Planning Ministry. She brings rich background from corporate sector. She has previously worked as Executive Vice President (Marketing and Communications) PTCL and also served other organisations including KESC, American Business Council, Pakistan Cricket Board and Daily Times. She has an MBA from Imperial College, London.

**** Akhtar Ali,*** Member Energy, is an eminent energy expert and has authored a number of books on energy policy, investments and tariff issues. He is a visiting Professor of Energy at IoBM and teaches energy management. He was also a Research Fellow Energy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Besides academic sector, he has also worked as a Chief Executive Officer of Proplan Associates; Managing Director, Karachi Pipe Mills; General Manager, Heavy Mechanical Complex and several other organisations.

He has an MS degree from METU Turkey, and BE from NED, Karachi. Breaking the past tradition of appointing retired officials, the new recruitments have been made by attracting quality talent from top academic and corporate institutions of the country in line with the new vision to transform Planning Commission into a development think-tank.-PR

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Ashan announces projects to promote education, human capital development

Monday, 11 August 2014 18:31
Posted by Imaduddin

http://www.brecorder.com/images/2014/08/ahsaan-iqbal.jpg

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms on Monday under **Vision 2025 **announced various projects including establishment of an Endowment Fund amounting to Rs.10 billion for promoting education in the country.

“We are establishing an Endowment Fund of Rs.10 billion in which poor, but talented students who cannot afford education would be provided scholarships/fees, while a Rs.1 billion a science talent scholarship for grade 1 to 10 will also be started”, he said addressing the inaugural ceremony of **Vision 2025 **here today. Under the Endowment Fund more than **50,000 students **would benefit from it.
Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif was also present on the occasion.

He added that 8000 Ph.Ds have returned from abroad but due to absence of research facilities they are attached with universities as teaching professionals but the government would establish a "Technology and innovation fund at a cost of Rs.5 billion to promote research specially in the agriculture sector.

Under reforms project of Vision 2025, government in collaboration with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) would initiate a project on good governance, modernization of public administration reforms, Institutional reforms, modernization of public sector at cost of Rs.$14 million in which UNDP would contribute **Rs.7$ million **while the government would contribute the remaining $7 million for providing a knowledge based platform.

He further said that under vision 2025 **Rs.500 million **would be spent on holding of national games to produce players of international standards and revive the past glory in the field of sports at international levels.

Prof. Iqbal said the government under Vision 2025 would enhance exports from current $25 billion to $150 billion to create job opportunities and reduce poverty in the country.

In Vision 2025, education and human capital development has been given top priority and enough resources would be allocated for these sectors. He added that under vision 2010, PML-N government forecast that Pakistan would require 28,000 MW electricity but the roadmap for energy need under the vision 2010 was not implemented, as a result, the country is facing worst load-shedding today. Prof Iqbal said if Vision 2025 is implemented, the country would get rid of load shedding by 2017-18.

He said that Vision 2025 is a** consensus document,** agreed by consensus by all four provinces, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan governments to put the country on the way to sustainable economic growth trajectory, creating a globally competitive and prosperous country by providing high quality of life for all citizens",

He said that PML-N government in 1998 initiated Vision 2010 but dictator Pervez Musharraf after one year overthrew the government and the vision could not be materialized.

Federal Minister for Planning and Development Prof. Ahsan Iqbal said there were 7 main factors for preparation of Pakistan Vision-2025 and 11th 5-year plan.

These include energy security, self reliance in growth rate, development of human resources, social development, value addition in production units, modernization and regional connectivity of infrastructure, promotion of small and medium enterprises, and lastly democratic governance of institutional reforms.

He highlighted the long term visions given by the leadership of **China, Turkey, Malaysia **and other countries, which changed the fate of their people and these countries are now witnessing economic growth and prosperity and their citizens enjoy quality life.

Re: Planning Commission hires staff from Academia,Corporate Sector

Country put on path of economic prosperity: Dar

Monday, 11 August 2014 20:25
Posted by Imaduddin

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ISLAMABAD: Minister for Finance and Economic Affairs Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar said on Monday that the government had adopted prudent economic policies, which put the country on the path of prosperity.

Addressing the inaugural ceremony of Vision 2025 here, Dar said that peace was imperative for economic development, which could not be achieved with bloodshed.

Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif was also present on the occasion.

Senator Dar said the actual revolution was to introduce economic policies, which had been appreciated by international organizations.

He said that there were predictions that Pakistan would default economically, which were made wrong by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government, which had initiated result-oriented policies.

The foreign exchange reserves had increased to US $ 14.3 billion, with the international financial institutions acknowledging improvement of economic indicators, he added.

Ishaq Dar said that the government had taken difficult decisions in the best national interest.

“We worked hard day and night for the socio-economic development,” he remarked.

The Finance Minister said that due to sound economic policies, the Pakistani rupee had been stabilized during the last five months, while it had doubled resources for poverty reduction.

“The government has also doubled agriculture credit, gave subsidy on fertilizers and tube-wells for the promotion of agriculture,” he added.

He said the government was also focusing on the development of industrial sector.

Senator Dar said that Pakistan returned to the international bond and equity market after seven years.

He said that due to introduction of 3G and 4G technology, one million new jobs opportunities would be created during next four years.

He said that the bids for 3G and 4G were oversubscribed.

He said, “Trade not aid is our moto, but it is part of the PML-N manifesto. We are following short and long term policies.”

He added that Moody’s, an international credit rating agency, had appreciated the government’s economic polices and enhanced the rating from negative to stable. It had appreciated the government’s good governance also.

He said that according to the credit rating agency, political instability would harm economic indicators. He the agitating politicians not to create chaos and work together for a stable Pakistan.

He said that for electoral reforms, the government had already established a committee for strengthening of democracy.

Re: Planning Commission hires staff from Academia,Corporate Sector

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Ministry Of Planning, Development & Reforms – Vision 2025

Re: Planning Commission hires staff from Academia,Corporate Sector

Good to have dynamic individuals, but you also need to set out the key performance indicators and have an effective monitoring system to evaluate your performance against the yardstick. The problem in Pakistan is that plans are made but there is nobody to implementation them.