Pakistan’s prime minister Shehbaz Sharif picked former banker from JPMorgan Chase & Co. Muhammad Aurangzeb as country’s next finance minister. The 59-year old was appointed to the position after he stepped down as chief executive officer of Pakistan’s biggest bank Habib Bank Ltd. Other possible candidates for the post were longtime Shehbaz Sharif ally Ishaq Dar and ex-central bank governor Shamshad Akhtar.
Following the appointment, Pakistan PM said, “We have to carry out a surgical operation as antibiotics will not work at all. There will be a deep surgery, so that the roots of this country can deepen. Whenever there is a will, there is a way and it is never too late.”
This comes as the country faces a difficult to secure at least $6 billion in loans from the International Monetary Fund amid an economic crisis fuelled by surging inflation and slowing growth. Pakistan also needs to unlock the final $1.1 billion tranche from an IMF program which will end next month.
Who is Muhammad Aurangzeb?
Muhammad Aurangzeb is a former CEO with JP Morgan’s Global Corporate Bank in Singapore and has headed Habib Bank for the past six years. On Pakistan’s economic situation, he had said earlier that any new government will have to address structural benchmarks set by the IMF in order to push economy in growth mode.
Some observers remained pessimistic as Nadeem Ul Haque, a former economist with the IMF, said as per Bloomberg, “Even if you bring legendary people like Larry Summers or Rubin, they can’t do anything. We have deep, deep problems in the economy and society that need to be fixed. Changing people or the IMF program is just window dressing.”
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