Shahid Javed Burki

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Shahid Javed Burki (Urdu: شاہد جاوید برکی) is a professional economist who has served as Finance Minister of Pakistan and as a Vice President of the World Bank. Born in Simla, India in 1938, he migrated to Pakistan along with his family in September 1947 and settled in Rawalpindi where his father worked as an official in the Pakistan army headquarters located in that city. He was educated in Rawalpindi's Presentation Convent and St Mary's Academy. Upon graduation he moved to Lahore to study Physics and Mathematics at Government College. He received Masters in Physics from Punjab University in 1959. The following year he was chosen as Rhodes Scholar from Pakistan and went to Oxford's Christ Church College to study economics. He received M.A from Oxford in 1963 and then went to Harvard University for graduate studies in Economics and Public Administration.

Burki joined the World Bank in 1974 as Senior Economist and went on to serve in several senior positions including, Director of China Department (1987-1994) and Vice President in charge of Latin America and the Caribbean (1994-1999). He took leave of absence from the bank to serve as Pakistan's Finance Minister in 1996-1997. He retired from the Bank in 1999.

Burki is the author of several books on China (A Study of Chniese Communes, 1969, Harvard University Press), Pakistan (Pakistan Under Bhutto, 1980, Macmillan; 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 2005). He is currently working on another book, Stepping Back from the Abyss: Pakistan under Pervez Musharraf.

He spoke at Harvard University in February of 2006 at a conference on US-Pakistan relations. He also writes an opinion piece for a Pakistani newspaper (the Dawn) once a week. He is also a frequent contributor of opinion pieces to Daily Times.