Imtiaz Alam Hanfi

Hanfi has 4 children with his wife Razia; namely Zahida, Hamid, Farhi and Hena. He also had 4 brothers. Hanfi always avoided evening parties be it official or non-official; nor did he socialize with any politicians and civil bureaucracy. He didn't even move to the Governor Residence (a lavish British style mansion next to British Council, Karachi) and stayed in his private house that he built in 1966. He died on 22 April 2015, at his residence.

Hanfi started the financial sector reforms in 1987. He introduced a system of treasury bills auctions and foreign exchange reforms, including the relaxation and dismantling of controls; however, the most important was the handling of the BCCI crisis and privatization of the financial sector.

He would spend more than forty years at the central bank, with one brief stint as the chief executive of PICIC between 1981 and 1984. In 1984 he was recalled as deputy governor and eventually went on to be appointed as Governor of the State Bank in 1988. He is also the only governor who has been appointed twice on the post; as Qasim Parekh was appointed as Governor State Bank when Hanfi resigned from the post, subsequent to his long-standing non-agreement with PPP government on policy issues.

Hanfi always wanted to join the Civil Service however he applied for an opening as an SBP Class I Officer, attending the interview on the insistence of his roommate. He was posted at Lloyd's Bank in Karachi as an SBP trainee in 1952. In the post-training exams, although he stood at the top of the batch nationally, though he was obsessed with following his father into the civil service and Hanfi had no plans to pursue a career at the SBP.

Muhammad Imtiaz Alam Hanfi (6 January 1929 – 22 April 2015) was a Pakistani banker who served as the governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and has been part of various government committees, including the Planning Commission. He was the first central bank governor in the country who came from within the State Bank of Pakistan and not belonging to a political party or international bodies like IMF etc.

Born in Allahabad, India, in 1929 in the village area of Pargana Chail. Hanfi got his schooling at the CAV High School and completed intermediate school education at the Union Christian College. Hanfi suffered severe bronchitis and asthmatic problems in his childhood and doctors advised his parent to keep him away from studies or sports; which is why he started formal education from grade 5 only. In 1947 following the independence of Pakistan in 1947, when he was 18, his family left Allahabad and moved to Karachi, Pakistan where his father entered the civil service. Hanfi enrolled in Islamia College and went on to complete a master's degree in economics at the University of Karachi in 1952 standing First Class First position. During his higher education, his family was based in Hyderabad; where his father was an officer in Pakistan Railways.