Moeenuddin Ahmad Qureshi - As Interim Prime Minister of Pakistan

As Interim Prime Minister of Pakistan

The continuing political crisis of 1993 in Pakistan came to an abrupt halt when the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and President Ghulam Ishaq Khan both resigned after two weeks of intense negotiations between the Nawaz Sharif government, Benazir Bhutto and the army. The resolution of the crisis was unique because for the first time in the nation's history, a government had voluntarily stepped down in order to avoid a possible military intervention. The negotiations were mediated by General Abdul Waheed Kakar, the Army Chief of Staff. The resultant agreement and its implementation followed strict constitutional procedure. Ghulam Ishaq Khan was replaced by the chairman of the Senate, Wasim Sajjad, who functioned as Acting President until the elections. More importantly, Moeen Qureshi, a former civil servant and senior World Bank official, agreed to serve as caretaker Prime Minister. During his brief tenure, Qureshi undertaook a series of economic and political reforms that were supported by an IMF standby arrangement and significant World Bank lending. He appointed several highly regarded technocrats and businessmen to his cabinet: Syed Babar Ali as Finance Minister, and Hafiz Pasha as Commerce Minister. He also appointed a number of experienced civil servants to senior positions on his staff including his younger brother Salman Qureshi (Inspector General of Punjab Police Retd), a well known and respected figure in the civil service and political community of Pakistan. Qureshi, a Pakistani national, had left the World Bank in 1992, obtaining permanent residence status in the United States where he founded Emerging Markets Partners, a private equity firm focusing on emerging markets investment. He is currently Chairman and Managing Partner. He is also known as Imported Prime Minister of Pakistan.