The 29th session of IPS’ oral history project ‘The Living Scripts’ was held with Mirza Hamid Hassan in three sittings on March 4, May 27, and September 27, 2022. Mirza Hamid is a former civil servant who has served in the Ministry of Water and Power, Ministry of Finance, Interior Ministry, Establishment Division, Economic Affairs Division, Cabinet Secretariat, and Statistics Division.
Sharing the details of his early education, he said that having been born in British India, he studied in India up till 1954 when his parents migrated to Pakistan and settled in Peshawar. He received his secondary and higher secondary education from Peshawar and graduated in Mining Engineering from Lahore.
Soon after his graduation, he joined WAPDA and started preparing for the Central Superior Services (CSS) exam. After three years, he appeared in the exam and was selected for Audit and Accounts Service. He then joined the Finance Services Academy and completed training in 1970. He completed his military attachment and departmental training in audit offices in Lahore by 1971, following which he was posted in Peshawar to serve as assistant comptroller in January 1972.
In 1977, he served in the Embassy of Pakistan in London as director audit and accounts where he got a chance to serve with four ambassadors. Afterwards, he served in the administration department of the Auditor General Office and Accountant General Office in Punjab. While apprising the audience about his services, he mentioned that he also got a chance to work in the Ministry of Finance, after which he was selected to serve in the Establishment Division as joint secretary in Rawalpindi in 1985.
In the same year, he joined the University of Pittsburg for an Advanced Management Training Course, designed specifically for officials of developing countries. In 1988, he was posted in Economic Affairs Division. He served in different wings of EAD during his course of duty there, including the economic coordination wing and banks’ wing. He served as joint secretary economic coordination in EAD where he had to deal with foreign nations, international organizations, Islamic Development Bank (IDB), and other institutions.
He recalled attending the board of governors’ meeting of the IDB in Morocco. However, there was no effective decision-making for the benefit of the ummah, which the IDB represents. He then served in the banks’ wing at EAD, where he had to deal with the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and other international institutions.
In 1994, he was posted to Capital Development Authority (CDA) in administration where he was in charge of ten directorates. In 1996, he joined the Interior Ministry as joint secretary for one year, after which, in 1997, he joined the Establishment Division as additional secretary.
In August 2000, he was promoted to federal secretary in Statistics Division; and in May 2001, he joined the Ministry of Water and Power as federal secretary, which was also his last posting before retirement. After retirement, he worked as a consultant with various international organizations.
While sharing his experiences, Mirza Hamid pointed out corruption to be one of the menaces in society that need to be eliminated as soon as possible. He further said that employees should have enough courage to speak up against corruption and dishonesty. He also pointed out the importance of English for communication, representation, and diplomatic interaction at the international level and highlighted the need for personnel training courses by field practitioners, consultants, and professionals of different areas of study for a diversified perspective in practice.
