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When I joined IBA in 1967...

By Syed Bahauddin Jamal'

My time at IBA was filled with enjoyable learning experiences and memories that would last a lifetime. One of these memories, which I remember distinctively, was meeting the future Prime Minister (Shaukat Aziz) of Pakistan back in 1967 while doing my MBA. I was introduced to him by a childhood friend of mine and eventually during our time at IBA we became close friends. Even back then, I could see the potential in Shaukat Aziz and I reiterated my belief in him constantly. His potential and my trust in it were exemplified by his unprecedented achievement of getting selected for the competitive job on offer from Citi Bank while facing competition from two gold medalists in the field of Finance.

Shaukat Aziz continued climbing the ladder in the finance sector until he got to the zenith by landing the prestigious position of the Finance Minister of Pakistan. As the Finance Minister, he visited Chicago, where I was presiding, and we met each other almost 35 years after we sat in the same MBA class at IBA. It was a humbling experience for him to recognize me after all these years but at that moment I again echoed my thought that Shaukat Aziz would go on to do greater things by taking up the mantle of Prime Minister of Pakistan. Although, he shied away from it citing Zafarullah Khan Jamali was the current Prime Minister, but I managed to spark an interest in him. Our conversation led to a discussion about my job and a case study of 'Dow Jones' went on to become a financial policy of Shaukat Aziz after he became Prime Minister.

Shaukat initiated the Euro Dollar fund which heavily influenced the KSE index. In terms of numbers his vision bought $500 million to the KSE and it crossed the 40000+ range. The Euro Dollar Fund was a mirror-image of my fund which propelled Dow Jones to unprecedented heights and it had the same profound effect on the Karachi Stock Exchange, as well.

This story has a deep message embedded in it, that "ideas are the basis of change and progress". Ideas should always be shared, because the sharing of ideas can make changes which a normal human mind can never predict or foresee.