AJK appoints first ever Woman Chief Economists

MUZAFFARABAD: Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) has created history by having a woman chief economist in the Planning and Development (P&D) Department.

As per the official notification released by the Services and General Administration Department on Thursday, Mahnaz Faheem has been promoted from BS-19 to BS-20 and given the charge of the department.

The Selection Board-I, headed by the chief secretary, approved the promotion during the meeting held on December 9 last year. Mahnaz Faheem was then the head of a division in the P&D Department.

After acquiring an MBA degree from the Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, she entered the AJK civil service in 1997 as a planning officer. In 2000, she obtained a master’s degree in gender and development from the University of Sussex in the UK, where she was one of the first two Chevening scholars from AJK.

On top of that, she was also awarded a gold medal in BSc with double mathematics and physics from the University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. She also worked with UNDP on two projects related to the 2005 AJK earthquake.

She made a statement expressing her gratitude to the government for the confidence shown in her and remarked that the appointment was both an honor and a duty. She asserted that women’s presence in top policy-making positions is essential for equitable development and further that she would strive for evidence-based, just, and gender-sensitive economic planning that truly impacts people.