Aftab Ghulam Nabi Kazi ( ur, آفتاب غلام نبی قاضی; 6 November 1919 – 9 August 2016) , also known as AGN Kazi, was a Pakistani

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

and a

bureaucrat A bureaucrat is a member of a bureaucracy and can compose the administration of any organization of any size, although the term usually connotes someone within an institution of government. The term ''bureaucrat'' derives from "bureaucracy", w ...

during the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...

and during the post cold war. Kazi was born in

Sindh Sindh (; ; ur, , ; historically romanized as Sind) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest province ...

Bombay Presidency The Bombay Presidency or Bombay Province, also called Bombay and Sind (1843–1936), was an administrative subdivision (province) of British India, with its capital in the city that came up over the seven islands of Bombay. The first mainl ...

, in 1919 to an academic family. He started his career in the

Indian Civil Service The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947. Its members ruled over more than 300 million p ...

in 1944 and served as the Deputy Commissioner of

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West ...

and

Orissa Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of S ...

. After the partition of India, Kazi migrated to Pakistan and joined the

Provincial Government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonomy, ...

of Sindh, and held positions such as Secretary of Finance and Secretary to the Governor. During the early 1960s, Kazi was Economic Minister in the Pakistan Embassy to the USA. After a brief stint as Additional Chief Secretary of West Pakistan, he was appointed Chairman of the

Water and Power Development Authority The Pakistan Water & Power Development Authority (WAPDA; ur, ) is a government-owned public utility maintaining power and water in Pakistan, although it does not manage thermal power. WAPDA includes Tarbela and Mangla dams among its resources. ...

. In that role, he was responsible for the completion of the Mangla Dam Project. In March 1969, he was appointed Secretary for Industries and Natural Resources and then a year later he became

Finance Secretary The Finance Secretary () is the administrative head of the Ministry of Finance. This post is held by senior IAS officer of the rank of Secretary to Government of India. T. V. Somanathan is the incumbent Finance Secretary. As a Secretary to Go ...

, a post he held for over three years until his elevation as secretary general. After the power struggle triggered by General

Yahya Khan General Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan , (Urdu: ; 4 February 1917 – 10 August 1980); commonly known as Yahya Khan, was a Pakistani military general who served as the third President of Pakistan and Chief Martial Law Administrator following his p ...

general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

, Zulfikar Bhutto became the new leader of Pakistan. In 1973, Kazi became Secretary General Finance and Economic Coordination. When

Ghulam Ishaq Khan Ghulam Ishaq Khan ( ur, غلام اسحاق خان; 20 January 1915 – 27 October 2006), was a Pakistani bureaucrat who served as the seventh president of Pakistan, elected in 1988 following Zia's death until his resignation in 1993. He wa ...

became

Finance Minister A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", ...

, Kazi was appointed Economic Advisor to the President in July 1977. In 1978, Kazi was appointed as

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

State Bank of Pakistan The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) ( ur, ) is the Central Bank of Pakistan. Its Constitution, as originally laid down in the State Bank of Pakistan Order 1948, remained basically unchanged until 1 January 1974, when the bank was Nationalized and ...

until 1986. The Pakistan State Bank, under Kazi, was characterised by excellent financial discipline in the banking sector coupled with good relations with the

Federal Government A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government ( federalism). In a federation, the self-gover ...

. Kazi was the longest-serving civil servant in the history of Pakistan. As a leading civil servant, Kazi passed through several major events in the history of Pakistan, including the removal of Bhutto and the mysterious death of General

Zia-ul-Haq General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq HI, GCSJ, ร.ม.ภ, ( Urdu: ; 12 August 1924 – 17 August 1988) was a Pakistani four-star general and politician who became the sixth President of Pakistan following a coup and declaration of martial ...

. In 1993, he was appointed as the chairman Privatization Commission and was again given the status of a Federal Minister as Chief Executive of the Pakistan Investment Board. In 1994, Kazi retired from office, at the age of 75, and led a quiet retired life in Islamabad. He died on 9 August 2016 after a prolonged illness. At his death, he was among the last living members of the old Indian Civil Service.

Early life

Kazi was born into a Sindhi, working-class family consisting of his father

Khan Bahadur Ghulam Nabi Kazi Khan Bahadur Ghulam Nabi Kazi MBE (b: 1884 Naushero Feroze, British India – 1955) was an educator in Sindh, which is one of the four provinces of what is now Pakistan. He rose to the position of first Director of Public Instruction, Sind ...

, an educationist, and his sibling Bashir Ghulam Nabi Kazi would later go on to become a senior Judge at the Sindh High Court and later the Federal Shariat Court. The family originated from Sindh, Bombay Presidency,

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. His father was a veteran educationist of Sindh who had been awarded the MBE by the

British Government ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd , image = HM Government logo.svg , image_size = 220px , image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg , image_size2 = 180px , caption = Royal Arms , date_est ...

for his services to humanity and social development. Anybody who suggests that a

Khan Bahadur Khan Bahadur – a compound of khan ('leader') and bahadur ('brave') – was a formal title of respect and honor, which was conferred exclusively on Muslim and other non-Hindu natives of British India. It was one degree higher than the title of ...

and an MBE was a member of the middle class during British colonial rule of India is being modest. His family was a member of Indian aristocracy. On the separation of Sindh from Bombay, Khan Bahadur Ghulam Nabi Kazi was appointed the first Director of Public Instructions Sindh in 1936. Kazi received his education in

Jamshoro Jamshoro ( sd, ڄام شورو, ur, ) is a city and the capital of Jamshoro District, located in Sindh, Pakistan. It is located on the right bank of the Indus River, approximately northwest of Hyderabad and northeast from the provincial cap ...

, Sindh, and went on to attend the

Cathedral and John Connon School The Cathedral & John Connon School is a co-educational private school founded in 1860 and located in Fort, Mumbai, Maharashtra.University of Bombay The University of Mumbai is a collegiate, state-owned, public research university in Mumbai. The University of Mumbai is one of the largest universities in the world. , the university had 711 affiliated colleges. Ratan Tata is the appointed h ...

from 1937. He graduated with a BS in statistics in 1941, and later went on to gain MSc in

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which ...

and

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

in mathematics from the University of Bombay. In 1943, he sat the last-ever

examinations from there, becoming a member of the final cadre of the ICS. Before joining the civil service, Kazi worked in the Department of Mathematics of D. J. Science College, teaching courses in Mathematics and Statistics. In 1944, he was one of the three Muslims selected for the Indian Civil Service, the others being

Agha Shahi Agha Shahi ( ur, آغا شا ﮨی; 25 August 1920 – 6 September 2006), ''NI'', was a Pakistani career Foreign service officer who was the leading civilian figure in the military government of former President General Zia-ul-Haq from 1977 t ...

and Mian Riazuddin Ahmed. Thus, Kazi started a career that would last for half a century making him the longest serving civil servant in the history of Pakistan.

Civil service in India

The

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was him ...

appointed Kazi as Deputy Commissioner in Bihar and Orissa where he served until 1947. He was asked by the British Government to stay in India, but he opted for Pakistan after partition in 1947. He arrived in his home town and joined the Government of Sindh, holding pivotal positions such as Secretary to Governor and Secretary Finance.

Senior offices held

After the amalgamation of all provinces in the western wing of the country in 1955, Kazi was appointed Finance Secretary of

West Pakistan West Pakistan ( ur, , translit=Mag̱ẖribī Pākistān, ; bn, পশ্চিম পাকিস্তান, translit=Pôścim Pakistan) was one of the two Provincial exclaves created during the One Unit Scheme in 1955 in Pakistan. It was ...

. In the early 1960s he was posted as Economic Minister in the Pakistan Embassy in Washington DC USA where he served until 1965. On his return to Pakistan, he was appointed for a brief period as Additional Chief Secretary (Planning nd Development) West Pakistan and thereafter as Chairman of Pakistan's

(WAPDA). It was during his tenure as chairman WAPDA that the Mangla Dam was inaugurated and on this occasion he was awarded the high civil award of

Sitara-e-Pakistan The Nishan-e-Pakistan ( ur, , , ''Order of Pakistan'') is the highest civilian award of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. It is awarded for "those who have rendered services of highest distinction" to the national interest of Pakistan. Nishan i ...

. Previously he had also been awarded the Sitara-e-Khidmat. In 1969, he was appointed Secretary for Industries and Natural Resources and a year later as

to the Government of Pakistan. He held this office during the crisis of 1971. In this capacity, he was also Chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue. In 1973, Kazi was assigned the highest grade in the civil service and made Secretary General, Finance and Economic Coordination in which capacity he had to supervise the working of all the economic and planning ministries of the government. He was appointed Advisor to the President on Economic Affairs in 1977 with the rank of a full Cabinet Minister on the imposition of martial law in July 1977. Thereafter he was appointed

Governor of State Bank of Pakistan Here is a list of the governors of the State Bank of Pakistan. List of governors See also * State Bank of Pakistan * Planning Commission (Pakistan) * Economy of Pakistan References Profile of Past Governors of State Bank of Pakistan ...

in 1978. He served there for eight years and this period was characterised by excellent financial discipline in the banking sector coupled with good relations with the federal government. During his tenure as Secretary General Finance, Kazi became involved in securing Pakistan's nuclear capability, along with

and

; the three constituting the co-ordination board to monitor the nuclear program. In 1986, he was appointed Deputy chairman Planning Commission., in which position he remained until 1993 until his induction as the chairman Privatisation Commission. In 1993 he was again given the status of a Federal Minister as chairman/Chief Executive of the Pakistan Investment Board.Cabinet Division, Government of Pakistan, Cabinet of caretaker Prime Minister Mr Moeen Quresh

/ref>

Retirement and death

In 1994, Kazi retired after 50 years of service. He lived in Islamabad with his wife Zakia, who died in 2009. They had two children. He died in Islamabad on 9 August 2016.

Offices held

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kazi, A G N 1919 births 2016 deaths Indian Civil Service (British India) officers Pakistani civil servants Governors of the State Bank of Pakistan Finance Secretaries of Pakistan Project-706 Pakistani Muslims Sindhi people Military government of Pakistan (1977–1988) People from Islamabad Recipients of the Sitara-e-Pakistan