Shahid Javed Burki

Shahid Javed Burkiشاہد جاوید برکی
Finance Minister of Pakistan
In office November 11, 1996 – February 17, 1997
President	Farooq Leghari
Prime Minister	Malik Meraj Khalid
Preceded by	Naveed Qamar
Succeeded by	Sartaj Aziz
Vice President World Bank
In office 1995–1999
Personal details
Born	Shahid Javed Burki November 14, 1938 (1938-11-14) Shimla, Himachal Pradesh
Nationality	Pakistani
Political party	Independent
Residence	Lahore, Punjab
Alma mater	Government College University (B.Sc. and B.S.) University of the Punjab (M.Sc.) Harvard University (M.A.)
Profession	Economist and Social scientist

Shahid Javed Burki (Urdu: شاہد جاوید برکی) is a professional economist who has served as a Vice President of the World Bank and as a caretaker Finance Minister of Pakistan. He has written extensively on economic development and on the political history of Pakistan.

Early Life and Education

Born in Simla in (then-British) India on September 14, 1938, Burki migrated as a child along with his family to Pakistan at the time of the Partition of India in September 1947. They settled in Rawalpindi, where his father worked as an official in the Pakistan army headquarters. Burki was educated at Rawalpindi's Presentation Convent and St Mary's Academy. Upon graduation he moved to Lahore to study double majors in Physics and Mathematics at Government College University. He received his M.Sc. in Physics from the Punjab University in 1959. The following year he was chosen as a Rhodes Scholar from Pakistan and went to Christ Church, Oxford to study economics. He received his M.A. from Oxford in 1963 and then went to Harvard University as a Mason Fellow for graduate studies in Economics and Public Administration.

Career at World Bank

Burki joined the World Bank in 1974 as a Senior Economist and went on to serve in several senior positions including: the (first) Director of the China Department (1987–1994), and the Regional Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean (1994–1999). He persuaded the World Bank's senior management, in the immediate aftermath of the Chinese authorities' repression of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, that the Bank should stay actively engaged with China—a stance challenged at the time by many of the Bank's most powerful shareholder countries. He took a leave of absence from the World Bank to serve as Pakistan's Finance Minister in 1996-1997. He retired from the Bank in 1999.

Bibliography and Books

Burki is the author or editor of several books on China (A Study of Chinese Communes, 1969, Harvard University Press), Pakistan (Pakistan Under Bhutto, 1980, Macmillan; Pakistan under the Military: Eleven Years of Zia Ul-Haq (with Craig Baxter), 1991, Westview Press; Pakistan: Fifty Years of Nationhood, 1999, Westview Press; A Historical Dictionary of Pakistan, Scarecrow Press, 1999) and on development (First Things First (with Paul Streeten), Oxford University Press, 1981; and Transforming Socialist Economies: Lessons from Cuba and Beyond (edited, with Daniel P. Erikson), Palgrave Macmillan, 2005). In 2007, he published Changing Perceptions, Altered Reality: Pakistan's Economy under Musharraf, 1999-2006 (Oxford University Press, Karachi).

Other activities

Burki writes an opinion piece for a Pakistani newspaper (the Dawn) once a week. He is also a frequent contributor of opinion pieces to the Daily Times.

Burki is Chairman of the Advisory Board of the recently-established Institute of Public Policy in Lahore, Pakistan.

Political offices
Preceded by Naveed Qamar	Finance Minister of Pakistan (caretaker) 1996 – 1997	Succeeded by Sartaj Aziz