Mahbub ul Haq

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Mahbub ul Haq

Mahbub-ul-Haq.jpg
Born February 24, 1934
Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir, British Indian Empire
Died July 16, 1998 (aged 64)
New York, United States
Nationality Pakistan
Institution Planning Commission
Ministry of Finance
UN Development Program
World Bank
University of Karachi
Statistics Division
Field Economics (Microeconomics)
School/tradition Heterodox economics and Game Theory
Alma mater University of Punjab (B.A)
Kings College at Cambridge (B.A.)
Yale University (Ph.D.)
Contributions Game Theory
Human Development Index (HDI)
Human Development Report (HDR)
Human Development Philosophy
Dr. Mahbub-ul-Haq (Urdu: ; February 24, 1934 July 16, 1998; PhD, FPAS), was a Pak
ame theorist, economist, and professor of microeconomics at the University of Ka
rachi who served as the 13th Finance Minister of Pakistan from April 10, 1985 ti
ll January 28, 1988.[1] He was involved in the human development theory (HDP), a
nd the founder of the Human Development Report (HDR). According to Haq's 1996 bo
ok Reflections on Human Development his work also opened new avenues to policy p
roposals for human development paradigms, such as the 20:20 Global Compact and t
he setting up of the UN Economic Security Council that became the inspiration fo
r the establishment of the United Nations Economic and Social Council.[2] He ser
ved as chief economist of Planning Commission (Pakistan) during the 1960s, direc
tor of the World Bank's Policy Planning Department in the 1970s. He is known as
"the most articulate and persuasive spokesman for the developing world".[3]
Contents [hide]
1 Biography
1.1 Childhood and education
1.2 Government work
2 Professional career
2.1 World Bank (1970-1982)
2.2 Minister of Finance, Pakistan (19821988)
2.2.1 Haq's list of Pakistan's wealthiest
2.3 Advisor to United Nations Development Programme(UNDP) (19891995)
2.4 Establishment of Human Development Center (1996)
3 Achievements
4 Death
4.1 Tributes from UN
4.2 The Mahbub ul Haq Award for Outstanding Contribution to Human Development
5 Selected works
6 Notes
7 External links
Biography[edit]
Childhood and education[edit]
Mahbub-ul-Haq was born in pre-independence Punjab province on February 24, 1934.
[4] His teenage years saw religious violence associated with the independence of
Pakistan and India in August 1947.[4] He and his family narrowly escaped from b
eing killed by the Sikhs in one of the trains heading to Pakistan. The nature of
the religious violence left a lasting impression on Mahbub-ul-Haq.[4] After rea
ching Lahore, Haq was given government-sponsored housing and decided to continue
his education. In 1954, he applied and was accepted at the Punjab University wh
ere he enrolled in the social sciences department.[4]
In 1958 he earned BS in Economics and earned scholarship to resume his studies i
n Great Britain.[4] He went on to attend Cambridge University where he earned an
other BA in the same discipline.[4] At Cambridge, Haq gained his BA alongside Am
artya Sen, with whom he formed a close, lifelong friendship.[4] After renewing h
is scholarship, Haq went to United States for his doctoral studies where America
n economics system would later influence him for his long advocacy for capitalis
m. He entered in doctoral programme of Yale University and earned PhD in Economi
cs from Yale, which was followed by post-doctoral work at Harvard University.[4]
After completing his post-doctoral studies, Haq returned to his country to join
the government service.
Government work[edit]
Upon returning to Pakistan, Haq joined the Planning Commission and, while still
in his 20s, he became chief economist of Planning Commission.[5] He maintained h
is ties with Finance Ministry and continued serving as economist advisor to the
government of Pakistan.[5]
By the 1960s he was delivering speeches all over the country. He supported the p
olicies of President Ayub Khan.[6] Haq advocated capitalism as the economic base
of the national economy and helped guide the government to apply free-market pr
inciples to boost the economy.[6] In a public press conference in 1965, Haq alle
ged that "22 industrial family groups had come to dominate the economic and fina
ncial life-cycle of Pakistan and that they controlled about two-thirds of indust
rial assets, 80% of banking and 79% of insurance assets in the industrial domain
."[6] The rapid economic development made Haq's team doubt the long-term viabili
ty of such a pattern of growth. While the international community was applauding
Pakistan as a model of development, Haq reserved the concerns and raises questi
ons that all was not well with the distribution of benefits of growth.[6] It cam
e as a surprise to Haq that the strong oligarchy of 22 families had control of t
he national economy and the private sector.[6] While supporting add taxation of
the powerful oligarch families, Haq left the country in 1971, just before the 19
71 war that led the secession of East-Pakistan into Bangladesh.[7]
While in the United Kingdom, Haq was called by Bhutto to join the Ministry of Fi
nance, but ultimately refused as he had strong opposing views on socialist econo
mics. Bhutto, in response, began to attack the powerful oligarch families in a p
rogramme of nationalization.[7] In 1973 Bhutto again asked Mahbub to return to P
akistan and join his administration in devising a strategy that would lift a lar
ge number of Pakistanis out of poverty and stagflation, but ideological differen
ces persuaded Haq not to return.[7]
In 1982 Haq returned at the request of General Zia-ul-Haq, and assumed charge of
the Ministry of Finance. He became associated with the Ministry of Defence, whe
re he would go onto play an important role. He was the first chairman of the Exe
cutive Committee of the Space Research Commission and assisted in the nuclear we
apon policy of the country with Munir Ahmad Khan.
Professional career[edit]
Haq also served as the World Bank's Director of Policy Planning (19701982) and he
aded Pakistan's Finance Ministry as its minister of finance and planning (1982198
8). In 1989, he was appointed as Special Advisor to the UNDP Administrator, wher
e he led a team of international scholars to produce the first Human Development
Report.[8]
World Bank (1970-1982)[edit]
During his tenure at the World Bank (197082), Haq influenced the Bank's developme
nt philosophy and lending policies, steering more attention towards poverty alle
viation programmes and increased allocations for small farm production, nutritio
n, education, water supply and other social sectors. He wrote a study[9] that se
rved as a precursor to the basic needs and human development approaches of the 1
980s.
Minister of Finance, Pakistan (19821988)[edit]
Serving as Pakistan's Minister of Finance, Planning and Commerce (198288), Haq is
credited with significant tax reforms, deregulation of the economy, increased e
mphasis on human development and several initiatives for poverty alleviation. Ac
cording to Parvez Hasan 'under Mahbub's direction, the Planning Commission becam
e once again a lively place and began to exert powerful influence on social sect
or issues, including education and family planning, much neglected in earlier Zi
a years as Finance Minister, Mahbub piloted a major acceleration in social spend
ing'.[10]
Haq's list of Pakistan's wealthiest[edit]
On 1968, Haq identified 22 families/groups in Pakistan that were dominating the
financial and economic life of the country controlling 66% of the industrial ass
ets and 87% of the banking. As indicated by Haq, these families had become both
the Planning Commission and Finance Ministry for the private sector by 1968. The
list included Dawood family of Dawood Group, Saigols of Saigol Group, Adamjees
of Adamjee Group, Colony, Fancy, Valika, Jalil, Bawany, Crescent, Wazir Ali, Gan
dhara, Ispahani, House of Habib, Khyber, Nishat Group, Beco, Gul Ahmed Group, Ar
ag, Hafiz, Karim, Milwala and Dada.[11]
Advisor to United Nations Development Programme(UNDP) (19891995)[edit]
In his capacity as Special Advisor to UNDP Administrator, Haq initiated the conc
ept of Human Development and the Human Development Report as its Project Directo
r. He gathered Paul Streeten, Inge Kaul, Frances Stewart, Amartya Sen, and Richa
rd Jolly to prepare annual Human Development Reports.
Establishment of Human Development Center (1996)[edit]
In 1996, Haq founded the Human Development Center in Islamabad, Pakistan-a polic
y research institute committed to organizing professional research, policy studi
es and seminars in the area of human development, with a special focus on the So
uth Asian region.
Achievements[edit]
Haq devised the Human Development Index, which has become one of the most influe
ntial and widely used indices to measure human development across countries. The
HDI has been used since 1990 by the United Nations Development Programme for it
s annual Human Development Reports. He also gave 5 year plan to South Korea whic
h helped South Korea to progress rapidly.
Death[edit]
Haq died on July 16, 1998 in New York, leaving behind his wife Khadija Haq, son
Farhan, and daughter Toneema. In acknowledgement of his contributions, the Human
Development Centre, Islamabad was officially renamed the Mahbub ul Haq Human De
velopment Centre on December 13, 1998, with Mrs. Khadija Haq as president.
Tributes from UN[edit]
'Mahbub ul Haq's untimely death is a loss to the world ...', Kofi Annan, UN Secr
etary General.
'... probably more than anyone else, (Mahbub) provided the intellectual impetus
for the Bank's commitment to poverty reduction in the early 1970s.[...]His uniqu
e contributions were trend setters for the world and focused attention on the So
uth Asian social realities, urging all of us to look at the dark corners of our
social milieus'. James Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank.
The Mahbub ul Haq Award for Outstanding Contribution to Human Development[edit]
In honour of Haq, UNDP established this award that alternates between recognizin
g political and civil society leaders. Recipients include:[12]
2007 Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Canadian Inuit activist.
2004 - Fazle Hasan Abed, founder of BRAC (NGO) in Bangladesh
2002 - Fernando Henrique Cardoso, President of Brazil, 19952003
Selected works[edit]
The Strategy of Economic Planning (1963)
The Poverty Curtain: Choices for the Third World (1976). Columbia University Pre
ss. 247 pages. ISBN 0-231-04062-8
The Myth of the Friendly Markets (1992)
Reflections on Human Development (1996) Oxford University Press. 1st edition (19
96): 288 pages, ISBN 0-19-510193-6. 2nd edition (1999): 324 pages, ISBN 0-19-564
598-7
The UN And The Bretton Woods Institutions : New Challenges For The Twenty-First
Century / Edited By Mahbub Ul Haq ... [Et Al.] (1995)
The Vision and the Reality (1995)
The Third World and the international economic order (1976)
New Imperatives of Human Security (1995)
A New Framework for Development Cooperation (1995)
Humanizing Global Institutions (1998)
Notes[edit]
Jump up ^ Mahbub ul Haq, a heretic among economists, died on July 16th, aged 64
Jump up ^ Mahbub ul Haq (1996) Reflections on Human Development. Oxford Universi
ty Press. 288 pages. ISBN 0-19-510193-6
Jump up ^ Mahbub ul-Haq
^ Jump up to: a b c d Sen, Amartya; Tam Dalyell (3 August 1998). "Obituary: Mahb
ub ul Haq". Amartya Sen, Tam Dalyell. The Independent. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
^ Jump up to: a b Crossette, Barbara (July 17, 1998). "Mahbub ul Haq, 64, Analys
t And Critic of Global Poverty". The New York Times. The New York Times. p. 2. R
etrieved 10 August 2012.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e "System is to blame for the 22 wealthy families". Human
Development Center, Originally published on London Times. Human Development Cent
er. March 22, 1973. p. 1. Retrieved 6 September 2012.
^ Jump up to: a b c Ponzio, Richard; Khadija Haq (2008). Pioneering the human de
velopment revolution: an intellectual biography of Mahbub Ul Haq. United Kingdom
: Oxford University Press, 2008. pp. 256260. ISBN 9780195695137. Retrieved 26 Feb
ruary 2014.
Jump up ^ UNDP (1990) Human Development Report 1990: Concept and Measurement of
Human Development. Oxford University press. ISBN 0-19-506480-1
Jump up ^ Mahbub ul Haq (1976) The Poverty Curtain: Choices for the Third World.
Columbia University Press. 247 pages. ISBN 0-231-04062-8
Jump up ^ A Tribute to Dr Haq at Human Development Centre website
Jump up ^ The 22 Families
Jump up ^ The Human Development Awards
Web site of Mahbub ul Haq Human Development Centre. Islamabad: A Tribute To Dr.
Mahbub ul Haq
External links[edit]
UNDP Human Development Reports website
Mahbub-ul-Haq page on United Nations in Pakistan site Contains a tribute, his sp
eeches and the Human Development Review Journal
The Mahbub-ul-Haq Development Center
Political offices
Preceded by
Ghulam Ishaq Khan Finance Minister of Pakistan
19851986 Succeeded by
Mian Yasin Khan Wattoo
Preceded by
Mian Yasin Khan Wattoo Finance Minister of Pakistan (caretaker)
1988 Succeeded by
Benazir Bhutto
Authority control
WorldCat VIAF: 112142502 LCCN: n50078881 ISNI: 0000 0001 0936 2946 GND: 10418689
5 SUDOC: 030545684 NDL: 00660690
Categories: Government College University, Lahore alumni1934 births1998 deathsFi
nance Ministers of PakistanPakistani bankersPakistani politiciansPakistani liber
tariansPakistani financiersPakistani economistsDevelopment economistsAlumni of K
ing's College, CambridgeScience and technology in PakistanFellows of Pakistan Ac
ademy of SciencesMilitary Government of Pakistan (197788)Pakistani anti-communist
sUniversity of Karachi facultyGame theoristsUniversity of the Punjab alumni
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