Mutawakkil Kazi

Dr Mutawakkil Kazi at the time of his retirement from active government service in 2004. Four years later he died.

Dr Mutawakkil Kazi was a noted civil servant and economist of Pakistan.

Family and early life

Kazi was born in Karachi, British India in 1944. His paternal grandfather Ali Mohammad Kazi was in the Indian Police and became District Superintendent, a post not normally assigned to Indians. He convinced Mutawakkil to opt for government service to keep the family tradition intact. His father Mumtaz Kazi was also a senior government officer while his uncle Mushtak Ali Kazi was a judge of the High Court of Sindh. His maternal grandfather Khan Bahadur Ghulam Nabi Kazi MBE was an educationist, who was appointed the first Director of Public Instructions of the Sindh province in 1936. His mother Khaki was an angelic person whose younger sister Ayesha was married to another senior civil servant Ahmed Hussain A Kazi. His mother had two brothers – the elder one Aftab - better known as A G N Kazi joined the Indian Civil Service in 1944 and became Secretary-General of the Ministry of Finance in 1973 - he is now leading a retired life in Islamabad after 50 years consecutive service from 1944-1994. The younger brother Justice Bashir Ghulam Nabi Kazi studied law and was elevated as a judge of the High Court of Sindh and subsequently to the Federal Shariat Court. He married Bina Kazi in 1976 and had two daughters Aasiya and Nadia. His sister Rabia was married to Mukhtiar Ahmad Junejo who was a judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and Chief Election Commissioner.

Childhood and education

Mutawakkil Kazi grew up in Karachi where both his grandfathers had built homes adjoining each other on Britto Road. The house next to theirs' belonged to Sir Shahnawaz Bhutto Adviser to the Governor of Bombay and father of statesman Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Lady Bhutto would often invite them on weekends in their house. In 1965 he became the first economics graduate from Forman Christian College Lahore, Pakistan to become a Richardson Scholar. However, he could not leave as war broke out and all seaports and airports were closed to the civilians. Later he got his masters in economics from the Williams College, USA in 1974, and finally secured his doctorate in economics from the Boston University in 1985.^[1][2]

Career

Dr Mutawakkil Kazi seen with Nobel laureate Amartya Sen and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in 2003

Kazi joined government service in the Planning and Development cadre of the Government of Sindh during the early seventies. He was Director General Monitoring in his department when invited to join the Federal Ministry of Production as Joint Secretary in 1986. He subsequently remained in the Prime Minister’s Secretariat during the tenures of prime ministers Moeen Qureshi and Benazir Bhutto. Subsequently he was appointed as Member Planning Commission (Pakistan) and Chairman Planning and Development Board Punjab. He was appointed Cabinet Secretary by Prime Minister Mian Muhammmad Nawaz Sharif just a few days before he was ousted from power in 1999. He remained Secretary Ministry of Planning and Development from 2000 till 2003. Subsequently he was Chief Secretary of Sindh in 2003-2004^[3] before reverting to the Federal government as Secretary Industries and Production. After retirement from regular government service he worked as Member of the Federal Public Service Commission till January 2008.^[4]

Death

After the end of his constitutional term in the Federal Public Service Commission, Dr Kazi helped several social sector ministries in an advisory capacity through his expertise. He was also a great painter and some of his work can be viewed at his website.^[5] He died suddenly on the 1st June 2008 due to cardiac arrest.^[6]

See also

• Khan Bahadur Ghulam Nabi Kazi
• A G N Kazi
• Justice Mushtak Ali Kazi
• Justice Bashir Ghulam Nabi Kazi
• Allama I. I. Kazi
• Elsa Kazi
• Dr Ali Ahmed S Kazi
• Ahmed Hussain A Kazi
• Sindh
• Boston University
• Planning Commission (Pakistan)

References