Dr. Ashfaque Hasan Khan is currently the Principal
and Dean, School of Social Sciences & Humanities, National University of
Sciences & Technology (NUST), Islamabad as well as a member of the Economic
Advisory Council of the Government of Pakistan. He has recently been elected as
member of the Board of Trustee of the International Islamic University,
Islamabad. He has been the Special Secretary Finance/Director General, Debt
Office and Economic Adviser Ministry of Finance, Islamabad for eleven years (1998-2009).
He has also been the Spokesperson of the Government of Pakistan on Economic
Issues for eleven years (1998-2009). He has been the Director and Vice Chairman
of the Saudi-Pak Industrial and Agricultural Investment Company Ltd. (A joint
venture of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan); and Directors of the United Bank Limited
(Representing government’s shares in the Bank) and Pak-Libya Holding Company (A
Joint venture of Pakistan and Libya).
Dr.
Khan holds a Ph.D degree in economics from the Johns Hopkins University in USA.
He joined the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) in 1979 as
Research Economist, where he held increasingly senior positions. He was Joint
Director of the Institute before being appointed Economic Adviser of the
Ministry of Finance in March 1998. In
January 2003 he was appointed Director General of the Debt Office of the
Ministry of Finance. He was appointed Special Secretary Finance/ Director
General, Debt Office in July 2007- a position which he held until February
2009. Dr. Khan has been the spokesperson of the Government of Pakistan on economic
issues for 11 years (March 1998 – February 2009).
As
a member of the high level Debt Committee, Dr. Khan was involved in the preparation
of the Debt Reduction Strategy which was later adopted by the Government. He
also played an important role in setting up the Debt Office in the Ministry of
Finance. Within eight years of pursuance of the same strategy the country’s public
debt was reduced to one-half and Pakistan was able to prepay expensive external
debt. Dr. Khan is the principal architect of the Fiscal Responsibility and Debt
Limitation Act, passed by the Parliament in June 2005. This Act was designed to
inject financial discipline in the country.
Dr.
Khan has been actively involved in the floatation of Pakistan’s sovereign bonds
including the Islamic bond (Sukuk) in the international debt capital market. He
has also been involved in the issuance of Global Depository Receipts (GDRs) and
Exchangeable Bonds in international equity markets.
Dr.
Khan’s past experience includes: visiting Lecturer at the Towson State
University in USA and Visiting Fellow at the Kiel Institute of World Economics
in Germany. He has also been the Consultant to many International
Organizations/ Financial Institutions such as the United Nations Economic and
Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (UN-ESCAP), the Asian and Pacific
Development Centre, the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank. As Consultant to the Secretary General SAARC,
he has the honour of preparing the Regional Study on Trade, Manufacturers and
Services which served as the foundation for regional cooperation in South Asia
including the establishment of the SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Dr.
Khan has the distinction of being the most widely published economist of the
country. He has published 9 books and
more than 170 articles in national and international journals of economic
science. His papers have appeared in the most prestigious journals of economic
science published from Harvard University and University of Chicago. Dr. Khan has also the distinction of being a
student of a Nobel Laureate in economics, Professor Lawrence R. Klein.
Dr.
Khan is currently a member of the United Nations Expert Group to review the
performance of the Asia-Pacific economies at the Economic and Social Commission
for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP), Bangkok. He was one of the experts of the UN-ESCAP,
assigned the task to prepare the views of the Asia-Pacific region on the world
economy for presentation at the G-20 Summit, held in Seoul, Korea in November
2010.
He
has been the editor, co-editor and the member of the Editorial Committee of the
various prestigious journals of economic science. He has been the recipient of
various awards from the National Book Foundation for publishing articles in
International Journals of economic science.
He is also the external examiner of Ph.D dissertation submitted to
various Pakistani and foreign universities. He represents Higher Education
Commission in the selection board of the Pakistan Institute of Development
Economics (PIDE) and the National Defence University (NDU). He is also the
member of the Board of Governor of the Foundation University. Dr. Khan is a frequent
speaker at the National Defense University, Pakistan Administrative Staff
College, National Institute of Public Administration (NIPAs), the Army School
of Logistics, Kuldana, Army School of Infantry, Nowshera the Command and Staff
College, Quetta and Ordinance College, Malir Cantt, Karachi.
In
recognition of his outstanding contribution to the field of economics and
public policy the President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan has conferred
the award of Sitara-i-Imtiaz
to Dr. Khan in 2005. The Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) also conferred
him the ECO Excellence Award 2010
for his outstanding contribution in the field of Economics.
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