Moeen Qureshi

An economist and former caretaker prime minister of Pakistan, Moeen Qureshi was born on 26 June 1930, in Kot Radha Kishan tehsil of District Kasur. He received his initial education at Islamia College and Government College, Lahore. He holds a BA (Hons) and MA (Economics) from the University of Punjab and a PhD (Economics) from Indiana University, USA.

 From 1980 to 1991 he was at the World Bank, first as Senior Vice President for Finance and Chief Financial Officer of the Bank from 1980-1987, and then as Senior Vice President for Operations, in charge of all Bank operations during 1987-1991.

Prior to that, Moeen Qureshi was at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) as Vice President and second in command between 1974 & 1977, and as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer from 1977 to 1981. He served with the International Monetary Fund from 1958 to 1970 and served both at headquarters and in the field in a variety of senior economic and operations assignments before joining the IFC.

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 hard 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 (also known as Imported Prime Minister of Pakistan), a former civil servant and senior World Bank official, agreed to serve as caretaker Prime Minister.

Moeen 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.

During his brief tenure, Moeen Qureshi undertook 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, retired Inspector General of Punjab Police, a well-known and respected figure in the civil service and political community of Pakistan.

Following his return to the United States, Qureshi led EMP Global, an Asia-focused fund manager, establishing a series of funds. Moeen Qureshi was involved in forging an affiliation with the international insurance company, American International Group (AIG), for a number of years. AIG held a minority stake in EMP and served as sponsor of, as well as a major investor in, a number of funds bearing its name for which EMP served as Principal Adviser. EMP bought out AIG's stake and became an independent company in 2005.