Founder of Pakistan’s business education, Dr IA Mukhtar, dies

‘Father of IBA’, disciplinarian, economics expert and bridge player laid to rest.

KARACHI: An educationist, visionary and mentor, Dr Iftikhar Ahmed Mukhtar passed away on Thursday, Nov 18 at 5:30 am. He was the first Pakistani director and dean of the Institute of Business Administration — but he was better known by his disciples and peers as the ‘father of IBA’.

Dr Mukhtar laid the foundation of the institute and struggled to make it a Pakistani educational centre of business studies with international standards. According to alumni, he headed the institute when the MBA degree was unheard of in the country.

He was known to be a strict disciplinarian both on campus and off. “I have heard that he was so strict that he used to make his children walk to IBA, while he used to go in his car,” said Dr Mukhtar’s former colleague and bridge partner Prof Abdul Hameed Khan. “He used to say that the car had been given to him by the IBA to commute to and from the college. It was not for his children and wife.”

Prof Khan, himself a former associate professor and deputy director at IBA, recalled how Dr Mukhtar would always help him in times of need. “He was like a godfather to me,” Khan told The Express Tribune.

Dr Mukhtar was also a keen player of bridge and was strict in the game too. “When someone made a wrong move, he would say, ‘Why don’t you go play gilli danda?’”

Dr Mukhtar’s life was one of scholastic achievements. He completed his Bachelor’s (Honours) from Saint Stephen’s College, Delhi with flying colours and was awarded a Master’s in economics with a gold medal from Aligarh Muslim University in 1939.

After teaching economics in India and Pakistan for 12 years, he was selected as the Pakistani counterpart for the Institute of Public and Business Administration (now IBA) and was sent on a Fulbright scholarship for a PhD at Columbia University, New York. “Immediately, on my return, I was named the deputy director of the IPBA and was actively involved in the decision-making and foreign training programmes,” Dr Mukhtar had said in an interview published with the IBA alumni website.

In 1960, he was offered the post of the head of the economics department at the University of Karachi. He declined the offer, however, as he though he “could make a better contribution to the cause of education as the head of IBA”.

After IBA changed from a department of KU to a constituent college with a separate board of governors, Dr Mukhtar headed the college as director.

He served at IBA until his retirement in 1972 but continued to contribute to academia by writing research papers and conducting case studies. He was also a member of IBA’s academic board.

After his retirement, IBA’s board of governors made Dr Mukhtar Professor Emeritus and conferred on him the Honorary Doctor of Laws (Honoris Causa) for his extraordinary contribution to the development and growth of the institution.

He was a recipient of the civilian Sitara-e-Imtiaz award as well.

In 2005, IBA introduced the Dr IA Mukhtar Gold Medal for students who secure the top position in the MBA programme.

Dr Ishrat Husain, the current IBA director, described Dr Mukhtar as a “fine gentleman” whose services were enormous to the IBA and the country’s academia. “He laid the institute’s very strong and solid foundations that have [now] helped me steer it in the right direction. We owe everything to him.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 20^th, 2010.